December 12, 2009
NC A&T (5-3) at UNC-Wilmington (1-5)
UNC-Wilmington is rated 75 OVR, about 7 points higher than us. They are not really any better on offense than we are but are better on defense and rebounding according to the team ratings.
They have a 6'8” PF and a 7'3” center(!!). The center, Clement Schultz, is rated very highly, is a good defender and is their leading scorer. Hopefully Hayes can hold his own against Schultz. Our other big concern is their SG, Montez Downey, a highly rated 3 point shooter, only averaging 7 points per game but we tend to do poorly against guys like this.
Half
| Time
| NC A&T
| UNCW
| Notes
|
1
| 12:45
| 14
| 18
| I feel lucky to be as close as we are. We're struggling to score inside, though Hayes picked up 5 points when we got good matchups(their 7'3” monster got stuck on Shiloh instead of Hayes). But they are getting good offensive rebounding and playing pretty well. I definitely can sense that this team is better than we are. Backups are in.
|
1
| 7:30
| 16
| 25
| Their inside game, espicially on defense,is just very strong. With zero jump shooters, our backups rely entirely on Cruz and Shepherd, and they can't do anything. Starters aren't quite ready to come back yet.
|
1
| 6:15
| 16
| 31
| Starters back in...
|
| HALF
| 27
| 47
| Wow. Their backcourt is doing most of their scoring. 15 from Wolf, their PG. 9 from SG Downey and 9 from SF Lacy. . Schultz has 4 points/7 boards for them.
Hayes leads us with 9 points but he's also had 2 shots blocked and is struggling to get open looks. Ewing is cold, and Alston has had no luck on the break, so all of our scoring options have pretty much gone dead at the same time.
|
2
| 15:45
| 41
| 54
| Ewing has hit two three's, Hayes has a 3 point play, and we've drawn two quick fouls on Schultz, which we were totally unable to do in the first half. We've made a run to at least make a game of it.
|
2
| 12:30
| 49
| 62
| Still down 13, Ewing has hit another 3 and he and Hayes are both having very good halves. Moment of truth coming up though, our backups are coming in. This is where we lost it in the first half.
|
2
| 7:30
| 52
| 71
| We got the leaddown to 10, 62-52, then they blew out a 9-0 run and seem to have put the game away. The starters are back in now.
|
2
| 4:30
| 64
| 76
| Hayes and Ewing continue to play well and Alston has gotten a couple outlet passes for easy buckets now, we've got it back down to 12.
|
2
| 1:45
| 73
| 78
| I was about to say that we'd just finally cut the lead under 10, 78-70. A badpass on their end, and Alston gets a 3 point play in transition. We've got it down to 5!
|
2
| 1:30
| 73
| 80
| Bad move on our part. A poor switch has Alston on Schultz, whoscores easily and Alston commits a dumb foul. Schultz misses the FT though.
|
2
| 1:04
| 76
| 80
| It takes longer than I want to get a shot, but when I do its an open 3 from Ewing.
|
2
| 0:29
| 79
| 82
| They drain an open mid-range jumper on their end towards the end of the shot clock. We rush the ball up the court and Ewing is clutch again, drains another 3.
|
2
| 0:22
| 79
| 83
| UGH. They miss the front end of a 1and 1, but Schultz grabs the offensive board. He makes 1 of 2 to make it a 2 possession game again.
|
Ewing misses a mid-range 2 pointer our next time down, they make their free throws and we can't complete the comeback.
UNC-Wilmington 89
NC A&T 82
They outrebounded us today, one of the few times that will happen this season. They scored more points in the paint, again we don't expect that to happen often, and they got 9 offensive boards and we only got 2. They also ended up with 9 blocked shots. Just a very strong performance inside by UNC-W.
On our end, Ewing and Hayes tried to win it for us but just were too far off in the 1
st half, Ewing espicially.
Alston: 11 points/5 assists
Ewing: 29 points
Shiloh: 4 points
Coleman: 11 points/5 boards
Hayes: 20 points/7 boards
7 points from our bench today, one of the worst performances you'll ever see from my backups.