Looks like I've come down with the flu or something like it, which is bad for me but great for my odds of finishing up the 09/10 season today :P
February 25, 2010
NC A&T (14-12, 10-5 MEAC) at SC State (13-14, 11-4 MEAC)
We beat these guys 100-82 at home in a crazy fast paced game... crazy fast paced even for us. They have the likely MEAC player of the year in SG Carrio Bennett, a sharpshooting junior who hit 8 3's and scored 32 against us in the first game. But they had no answer for our transition game and Thomas Coleman had a career 35 point/15 board day.
One of our big advantages is that we got them into foul trouble early. They have a good starting group but absolutely no depth.
I'm a bit worried about trying to outgun this team in their house, but I don't think we really have any other options. Our team unity is now up to 61. Theirs is 46.
Half
| Time
| NC A&T
| SCSU
| Notes
|
1
| 15:45
| 15
| 9
| Hayes is off to another great start, he has 8 already, 4 on offensive rebounds/2nd chance opportunities. They have 3 3-pointers.
|
1
| 13:45
| 20
| 9
| They burn another time out. They appear to be cold from 3. We haven't drawn any fouls on them at all this game either which is odd... I felt like I couldn't have won the previous meeting without putting their big men on the bench in foul trouble.
|
1
| 11:15
| 27
| 14
| Backups are in. They now have 4 3's and just recently made their first two point field goal. One of their many problems... Ewing is on fire today once again. He has 3 3's already to keep up with SC State's outside shooters.
|
1
| 6:00
| 31
| 25
| They do a pretty good job getting open shots against my backups, making their fair share of them. I get 4 hard-earned points out of Shepherd, all on putbacks. They score 5 straight to get the lead down to 6 and I call a timeout to get the starters back in.
|
1
| 4:00
| 33
| 30
| Bennett has 19 for them... we burn a timeout to cool him off.
|
| HALF
| 42
| 33
| They cut the lead to 1, 33-32, but we finished strong to retain a 9 point lead going into the locker room.
Bennett is really hurting us. He's 5-9 from 3 and has 20 points. But this isn't unusual when our opponents have good shooters.
Ewing has 15 and had a great half, 3-7 from 3 and 5-11 from the field overall. Hayes already has a double-double, 13 points/13 boards! Coleman has been a non-factor with only 2 points and 1 board.
|
2
| 14:10
| 50
| 39
| They started off on a 6-2 run but we've scored 6 straight to keep our lead about the same.
|
2
| 12:40
| 52
| 41
| Backups are in.
|
2
| 5:30
| 57
| 45
| The backups successfully burn clock, play good defense and hang on to the lead as the starters return to finish off the game.
|
So this isn't the final you would expect to see in one of my games. But they just stayed cold and on the road I just saw no reason to force the issue late. We ended up outscoring them 7-4 in the final 13 minutes.
NC A&T 59
South Carolina State 45
We shot 38% but held them to a dismal 26%, including 6/40 from 3. They had 6 3's at the half. Bennett ended up with 24.
The final second half tally was NC A&T 17, SC State 12.
Alston: 12 points/2 assists
Ewing: 17 points/3 assists
Johnson: 0 points/9 boards
Coleman: 2 points/8 boards
Hayes: 19 points/19 boards
So close to 20/20 from Hayes.
We've now guaranteed ourselves a winning record in the regular season! If we can pull out one of these last two we guarantee a winning record no matter what happens in the postseason.