January 11, 2010
NC A&T (5-8, 1-1 MEAC) at Delaware State (6-4, 2-0 MEAC)
Scouting
Another team rated a little below us. They also play pretty poor defense, their offense isn't very good either, but they are an outstanding rebounding team.
PG Darrell Mosley – SR – 61 OVR – Below average shooter, average passer, good speed,good defense. 7.4 ppg this year.
SG Marcus Neal – SR – 58 OVR – Below average shooter, really kinda poor all the way around. Obviously this means he is going to torch us. 4.2 ppg
SF Kyle White – SR – 66 OVR – A good inside shooter and decent in traffic. Not a great ball handler or defender. 7 ppg, he's got a nagging injury as well.
PF Robin Boxler – SO – 71 OVR – I remember this guy from last year, which is not a good sign. Very good inside scorer, great post offense, just average defense inside. Good rebounder. 10.3 ppg/8.4 rpg. He's 6'11”.
C Roy Bright – JR – 60 OVR – not anywhere close to the player Boxler is, but he's also 6'11” and a good rebounder. 6.5 ppg/4.6 rpg.
I seem to get burned by even very poor shooters in a zone, so we'll see how this works... I'm going to play a 2-3 zone against these guys at least to start.
Half
| Time
| NC A&T
| DEL
| Notes
|
1
| 15:00
| 8
| 10
| We get out to a quick 8-2 lead and learn what happens if we turn it over. They get layups. Any time we turn it over, they're going to get a layup. Their PG is faster than anyone we have, not by a ton, but enough that we can't catch him on any outlet pass.
|
1
| 12:15
| 14
| 14
| Backups are in. Delaware State isn't very good in the half court set. But they do rebound, a couple offensive boards have kept them going.
|
1
| 11:15
| 14
| 16
| Bright, their center, has 2 fouls. His backup is a terrible 6'9 soph. Terrible as in rated 50 OVR.
|
1
| 7:15
| 20
| 23
| Neal, their SG that I said is a pretty terrible offensive player, scores 5 straight including a 3 under some pressure. We get our starters back in, down by 3.
|
1
| 3:15
| 24
| 31
| Hayes picks up fouls #2 and 3 in quick succession, Cruz is in for him. They hit a couple open 3's with me in the zone to pull out to a 7 point lead.
|
| HALF
| 28
| 34
| Very frustrating end to the half as Alston misses a dunk on a fast break and then gets hammered on another and doesn't get the call. We should have been down by 2, not 6.
The zone is working for the most part, as Delaware State is launching 3's with reckless abandon. They're 3-14 from deep. Boxler has 6 points/7 boards and is hurting us. Their PG Mosley has 6 points, all on layups in transition.
We have 5 points/8 boards from Coleman. Hayes and Alston have 6, Ewing 5.
|
2
| 18:55
| 30
| 34
| Our starters played more than usual in the first half, specifically going the final 7:30. I decide to put the backups in and get the starters a little more rest.
|
2
| 15:00
| 36
| 44
| Their inside guys just dominate our inside backups. Not good at all. Starters are back in.
|
2
| 11:00
| 44
| 47
| Our starters get on a good roll, taking advantage of the long rebounds from missed 3's to get out on the break. Ewing and Alston both score a good bit this way. However, Ewing picks up his 3rd foul, Hayes picks up his 4th. I decide to bring the backups in til the 6:30 mark or so and let the starters carry us home.
|
2
| 10:00
| 48
| 48
| Cruz scores 4 fairly quick points for us and we've tied the game up. They still have Boxler out there but otherwise have backups in.
|
2
| 9:00
| 50
| 49
| A basket inside by backup SF Johnson gives us the lead. Our backup PG, Works, hurts himself and has to come out. I pull Shiloh back to the backup squad for now.
|
2
| 6:45
| 52
| 52
| Starters are back in, except Johnson at SF instead of Shiloh for now. We've committed a lot of fouls this half, mostly stupid reaching in at the top of the 2-3 zone. As a result, Delaware State is already shooting free throws.
|
2
| 4:30
| 58
| 55
| Boxler finally has to rest for a bit and we take advantage, getting two buckets from Coleman and one from Hayes inside to take a 3 point lead.
|
2
| 3:20
| 60
| 57
| Boxler is back in for them, and we take a slim one possession lead into the final 3 minutes.
|
2
| 2:30
| 60
| 62
| Neal, their terrible 3point shooter, picks a good time to drain one. We come up empty on the other end, and Boxler fouls hayes out of the game on a 3 point play. Just perfect. Boxler does miss the FT so we trail by 2.
|
2
| 1:45
| 60
| 63
| Ewing misses a wide open shot. We foul Neal as he's driving on the other end. He makes 1 of 2.
|
2
| 0:36
| 62
| 65
| Coleman tries to go up over Boxler and he just can't score on the guy. They end up scoring on their end. Ewing makes an athletic play to get to the rim on our next possession, and we start to foul.
|
We can't score again, and they don't miss.
Delaware State 70
NC A&T 62
We're in a pretty rough patch here after starting out 5-2. We need a win to get us out of this funk, badly.
Their PF Boxler was great for them on defense, and good enough on offense. 18 points, 17 rebounds and he just hurt us badly. 2 blocks and 2 steals too. Our defense did what it was supposed to. They were 6-25 from 3 on the game, and they committed 13 turnovers, many of them on bad passes into the middle of our zone. We just couldnt' quite capitalize enough.
Alston: 10 points
Ewing: 11 points (5/18 shooting, 1-12 from 3, the first 8 of them wideopen. I'm
really struggling with him.
Shiloh: 0points
Coleman: 11 points/17 boards
Hayes: 10 points/3 boards
Cruz: 8 points/9 boards.