February 8, 2010
Hampton (10-9, 8-2 MEAC) at NC A&T (10-11, 6-4 MEAC)
Scouting
Hampton has won the MEAC regular season title each of the last two years and won the conference tournament last year. Hampton has the #2 offense in the league behind us, but they also have the #3 defense, where our defense is one of the worst.
PG Brandon Tunnell JR 65 OVR Classic point guard. Good speed, handling and passing, average scoring ability. 9.9 ppg/4.4 apg
SG Vincent Simpson SR 64 OVR- I remember this name from last year which is always a bad sign. Not a great shooter but good speed and quickness, good defense and good in transition. 11.8 ppg
SF John Ntoko SR 60 OVR Not someone to worry about in any way. 3.2 ppg.
PF Michael Freeman SR 73 OVR 6'9 - Great low post offense and inside ability. Good rebounder. Will be a tough challenge for Coleman obviously. 15.7ppg/7.8 rpg. Two time 1
st team all-conference performer.
C Milade Lola-Charles JR 62 OVR very strong defensive rebounder and low post defender. Only 4.4 ppg/5.5 rpg, virtually no offensive ability.
This is the first team I've looked at in conference play and said I think they're better than us. they like to press and run, and how we handle their press and run with them(we're clearly not going to try to slow it down, if they can outrun us, they win) will dictate the game.
My big edge this year that I have never had before is speed out of my backups. This is a team that my starters can hang with but the backups get destroyed. The speed and ball handling I have out of Works and Colter, and Shiloh if I need to drop him to 2
nd string, should be huge.
Oh yea their team unity is awesome. 62, and again we are much better off there than ever before, we're at 55.
Half
| Time
| NC A&T
| HAM
| Notes
|
1
| 16:50
| 7
| 5
| Shiloh commits two stupid reach fouls early and comes out. Tunnell commits one stupid reach and one foul as Alston is driving by him and has to come out. Advantage A&T.
|
1
| 14:30
| 9
| 14
| We commit a couple turnovers against their press and they run their offense to perfection against us, easy baskets.
|
1
| 12:20
| 17
| 14
| We draw foul #2 on Freeman and that seems to open the floodgates for us. A very quick 8-0 run has us back on top.
|
1
| 12:00
| 17
| 16
| Backups are in.
|
1
| 6:20
| 27
| 26
| They go on a 10-2 run and lead 26-19 mainly because we commit some dumb turnovers , both against the press and out past the 3 point line allowing them to get easy layups. We're able to settle down and go on a 8-0 run ourselves to go back ahead. Game of runs, eh?
|
1
| 5:30
| 27
| 26
| Starters back in
|
1
| 2:15
| 33
| 32
| Our run got up to 14-0 and we led 33-26. Two straight 3's and its down to 33-32. I just had to call a time out with 2 seconds left to get the ball up court. I don't want the turnover to allow them to get on an 8+ point run and get the lead back that way.
|
| HALF
| 37
| 34
| We have an open 3 from Ewing and then a board by Hayes to try to extend the lead in the final 10 seconds but cannot convert either.
Outstanding first half of basketball. This seems like the type of game where us getting the crowd behind us once or twice in the 2nd half could give us the edge we need, a very close game.
They are 4-17 from 3 and only 15-39 overall. We're 14-30 from the field but 9-15 from the FT line, where we always seem to end up WAY more than our opponents.
Alston has 11, Hayes 8, Coleman 8. Their SG Simpson, the one I said oh no I remember his name has 13 points to lead them.
|
2
| 16:10
| 41
| 40
| Hayes just came out with an injury. Uhoh.
|
2
| 12:15
| 54
| 50
| Hayes just has a minor injury and can come back in. After a huge 3 from the corner by Ewing to give us a 4 point lead Hampton calls a time out. I get my backups in, except I put Shiloh at SF, his speed will help the backups break the press, and Hayes is in at Center.
|
2
| 6:10
| 56
| 60
| They go on a 10-2 run, Hayes is totally ineffective and we just can't manage anything, while they drain 2 threes and seem to score pretty easily. Starters are in for the duration.
|
2
| 2:30
| 66
| 68
| After some back and forth we finally get a stop and cut the lead down to 2. they had Simpson on the bench, and he's back in now so we'll see if he continues to kill us down the stretch.
|
2
| 1:45
| 68
| 73
| Heh, Simpson drains a 3. We fail to scoreon our end, and Simpson getsan assist on a dunk... great. We get a basket from Cruz to cut it back to 5, their ball.
|
2
| 0:50
| 68
| 73
| We force Ntoko, their worst shooter, to take a 3, and get Hayes an easy look from 2 feet out that he just dinks into the front rim. I guess his injury?
|
2
| 0:35
| 71
| 75
| We foul them, not wanting them to be able to burn clock down under 20 seconds. They make them both. Ewing breaks their press and gets to the hoop, where he's fouledby Simpson and makes his shot! 3 point play! We full court press and they throw a bad pass that sails out of bounds untouched. Our ball!
|
2
| 0:29
| 73
| 76
| Coleman scores right away, and we foul after the inbounds pass. Simpson makes the first, misses the second but their center, Lola-Charles, gets the rebound. We foul him right away. That's still only our 9th foul so its 1 and 1. They miss the front end and we grab the board.
|
2
| 0:20
| 73
| 78
| UGGGGGGGGGGH. Alston tries to get around his man and create an open shot and he loses control of the ball. Turnover and we have to foul.
|
2
| 0:11
| 76
| 79
| Ewing makes a quick 3! Still not over... We foul again. They make the first and miss the second, so we've got one last shot to tie.
|
I'm unable to get Ewing open, he takes a heavily contested shot that is off the front rim.
Hampton 79
NC A&T 76
I'm not sure we can play better against these guys. Simpson absolutely destroyed our zone, but, most of the time we played man defense, they got layups. We're simply an average at best defensive team that plays better in a zone I think.
Simpson scored 33 for them, 6-13 from 3 and 12-25 overall.
Alston: 13 points/6 assists
Ewing: 15 points/7 assists
Shiloh: 0 points
Coleman: 14 points/14 rebounds
Hayes: 10 points/9 rebounds
Cruz: 11 points/5 rebounds
Hayes being hurt and ineffective in the final 10 minutes really hurt us. Coleman and Hayes both had 10 points early in the second half and were not able to do much more after Hayes went down.
We're 10-12 with 7 games left now. We need a 5-2 finish to the season. Our next two games are critical, at MD-Eastern Shore and at Morgan State. 5 of our final 7 are on the road, but I think they are all winnable.