January 16, 2010
Morgan State (5-9, 3-1 MEAC) at NC A&T (6-9, 2-2 MEAC)
Scouting
Another home game which is good. Morgan State opened the season with a win over Missouri before losing 9 straight. They finished non-conference play with a win at Baylor and now have 3 wins in a row in conference play. Their conference loss is a 62-26 embarrassment at MD-Eastern Shore.
PG Dalron Nance – SR – 56 OVR – actually a SG, and a very poor ball handler, even for a SG. Poor shooter, looks mainly to be a threat to drive. Very slow. Alston may have a field day if he can get out on the break vs Nance. 3.6 ppg, 1.4 apg
SG Reggie Holmes – SR – 69 OVR – 85 rated 3 point shooter, ie deadly at this level. Looks to be the big scoring threat. I think he had a big game against us last year, I remember his name. He's only averaging 9.8 ppg this year, down from 14.5 last season.
SF Ameer Ali – JR – 70 OVR – good ball handler for a 6'6 forward, with great driving ability and the ability to score in traffic. Averaging 9.4 ppg.
PF Kevin Thompson – JR – 64 OVR – 6'8”, decent inside prescence, good leaper and strong. Coleman should beat him out on the boards though. 7.5 ppg/6.0 rpg.
C Rodney Stokes – JR – 61 OVR – 6'10”, looks like a better rebounder than Thompson(and Hayes unfortunately). Good inside shot and a good post defender. 5.4 ppg/5.0 rpg
Scouting reports suggest that we crowd the lane against this team, but I am sure if I run a zone that Holmes will score 40.
Half
| Time
| NC A&T
| MSU
| Notes
|
1
| 14:15
| 14
| 8
| They play good half court defense which is giving us problems, but any turnover and most missed shots that we get aclean rebound on are translating into layups. Their guards are awful in transition, and Alston and Ewing are very good.
|
1
| 12:00
| 14
| 8
| Backups are in. Still 14-8, Alston just missed a dunk, whoops. Hayes has 2 fouls.
|
1
| 10:15
| 14
| 18
| Oof. Two 3's from Holmes and a couple other easy baskets... damn backups!
|
1
| 6:25
| 18
| 22
| Cruz scores 4 points for us as we slow the game down to rest our starters, who are all back in, minus Hayes with his 2 fouls.
|
1
| 5:30
| 18
| 29
| They score a basket, we miss a shot, they get a 3 point play, and steal the inbounds pass for a layup and a very quick 7-0 run.
|
| HALF
| 29
| 44
| They hit two threes to finish out the half in horrific fashion for us. They're shooting 60% from the field while we're shooting 34%.
We got 8 out of Alston, 7 from Ewing and 6 from Coleman. Cruz came up big with 7 points as well. We just shot 9-26 from the floor and got most of it from the line(10-15 from the FT line)
Holmes has 12 for them, Ali has 9.
We're going to open the second half in a zone.
|
2
| 16:30
| 35
| 50
| We've missed 3 shots in transition that I fully expected to make and as a result haven't cut down the lead at all yet.
|
2
| 14:35
| 39
| 52
| Backups are in. We continue to get to the line well, and continue to make 1of 2 every time we get there.
|
2
| 13:45
| 44
| 52
| 5 straight for PG Leandro Works and we've got the lead back under double digits.
|
2
| 10:45
| 50
| 60
| Two three pointers for SF Ali push their lead back out, but Works has been a monster driving to the basket, another 3 point play by him and we get the lead back to 10. Starters come back in for another run.
|
2
| 9:00
| 56
| 60
| Their shooters have gone cold and we're killing them on the break.
|
2
| 7:55
| 62
| 62
| Ewing drains an open 3 pointer after Holmes hits a mid-range jumper on their end. After a miss Alston manages a 3 point play to tie it up!
|
2
| 6:00
| 67
| 65
| We continue to push after every miss, and they continue to shoot poorly from 3, but hitting just enough to keep it close. Backups are in for a short time to rest the starters for the stretch run.
|
2
| 4:20
| 71
| 73
| Ali hits two straight 3's for them. If they keep this up I may have to go back to man to man, its kinda a borderline call this game. But the missed 3's are leading to so many easy baskets, I think that makes the difference. Starters are back in.
|
2
| 2:00
| 73
| 77
| Alston misses a layup in traffic, and we make a bad pass to turn it over. Down 4, their ball.
|
2
| 1:35
| 76
| 77
| We get a steal and Alston is fouledon a drive. He makes 1 of 2. They miss a shot in the post on their next play, we get it out to Alston who makes a great move in traffic for a basket.
|
2
| 0:48
| 78
| 79
| Holmes makes two free throws for them. Ewing misses a transition dunk, but we get the rebound and put it back in.
|
2
| 0:14
| 80
| 79
| We play good defense, Ali misses a contested 3, and Alston is out on the break yet again. We lead by 1 and need to play defense for the final 15 seconds.
|
2
| 0:05
| 80
| 81
| What... Ewing with a reach on Holmes as he's setting up for the final play. That's our 7th foul so Holmes goes to the line. He makes both.
|
They press, but we're able to get the ball to Ewing down court for a last second shot. He shoots a jumper long off the rim and we fall by 1.
Morgan State 81
NC A&T 80
I cannot believe that Ewing committed that reach in foul for no reason at all with 5 seconds left in the game. Also, I did learn a valuable lesson here. Even if a team has a 3 point threat, the 2-3 zone can be worthwhile. Sure they hit some 3's on us but in the first half they were getting to the basket over and over. I think if I had gone to a zone, like our scouting report suggested, we would have won. Ah well, I'll know better next time.
They got 23 from Ali and 22 from Holmes, but they only shot 6-24 from 3.
Alston: 27 points
Ewing: 14 points
Shiloh: 3 points
Coleman: 11 points/18 rebounds
Hayes: 3 points/7 boards.
Extremely disappointing loss, and one that could have been avoided.