Philly Gym Rat (The Perry “QM” McMullin Story)

[PointGuard]

Game #5: Nov. 24, 2013; Central Florida Knights (2-2) at CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners (3-1)

The first half was ugly. Neither team played well, but the Knights hit just 30% of their shots so we were able to move out to a 29-21 halftime lead. Marcelle Pastner scored 8 points to lead our scoring.

We again played poorly in the 2nd half. The Knights pulled ahead by 6. We rallied in the final two minutes and tied the score at 48-48 with just over a minute remaining. The Knights turned the ball over and we brought it up court with 38 seconds remaining. Justin Williams missed a baseline jumper, then Central Florida was unable to convert on the other end. We rebounded and called a time out with 9 seconds to go. Our pick and roll play was unsuccessful taking us to overtime.

Overtime: Neither team was able to put the ball in the basket until Kevin Hill hit a 25 footer with 2:48 remaining to put us ahead 51-48. Our defense continued to stymie the Knights for another minute of the OT. Kevin Hill slipped a pass inside to Ali Lyde who took his man to the hoop, pulled back and hit a 6 foot jumper to put us ahead 53-48 with 1:40 remaining. The Knights finally knocked down a 12-footer from the left of the key to make it 53-50. With 1:15 to go, Lyde got free and put up an 8 footer to give us a 5 point cushion again. Central Florida brought it up quickly and hit a shot from the free throw line. On our next possession Jerell Brown drove toward the basket but was covered, so passed to Marcelle Pastner who put a shot up over his man, banking it in to make it 57-52 with 0:51 left. After missing a shot, Central Florida had to foul 4 times before sending us to the line with 7 seconds to go. Andrew Powers swished both ends of the one-and-one.

Final Score: CSU Bakersfield-59, Central Florida-52 (OT). CSU Bakersfield season record: 4-1.

Scoring leaders: Jrl Brown-11, Pastner-10, Williams-8, Lyde-8.

Rebound leaders: Lyde-9, Hill-6, Williams-5.

Assist leaders: Hill-5, Lyde-3.

Player of the Game: SG Jerell Brown-11 pts, 4 reb, 2 assists, 2 steals.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: C Marcelle Pastner-10 pts, 4 reb.

Other notes: Neither team shot well. We hit 35%, the Knights hit 34%. We hit 15% of our 3’s. Central Florida wasn’t much better hitting just 19% of theirs. Central Florida had a 45-43 rebounding advantage but made 17 turnovers while we made just 10.

[PointGuard]

Game #6: Nov. 28, 2013; Hofstra Pride (1-3) at CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners (4-1)

We have Jerell Brown who’s scoring at a 25.6 ppg clip, but Hofstra has Beau Chenoweth who’s scoring 29.8 ppg. Preparing for this game, our players have taken up the mantra “No To Beau”.

We spurted out to a 17-4 lead in the first 5 minutes of the game, getting scoring from everyone on the floor. Hofstra then went on a 9-0 run when our shooting went into the toilet. We recovered to take a 33-22 lead to the locker room. We hit 48% of our shots compared to 27% for Hofstra. Darius Dunn led our scoring with 9 points. We held Beau Chenoweth to 3 points on 1 for 8 shooting.

Jerell Brown picked up his 4th foul at 12:12 in the 2nd half with us leading 47-35. The referees continued piling on fouls against us. Darius Dunn was charged with his 4th at the 7:45 mark with us ahead 55-47. I brought Dunn back in with 5-1/2 minutes to play and 4 seconds later he fouled out, our lead now down to 55-50. Hofstra hit a 3 with 47 seconds to play to cut our lead to 61-57, then fouled immediately. Jerell Brown sunk both ends of the 1 and 1 to put us up by 6. From there we held on to win a close one.

Final Score: CSU Bakersfield-64, Hofstra-60. CSU Bakersfield season record: 5-1.

Scoring leaders: Lyde-14, Jrl Brown-13, Pastner-10, Dunn-9.

Rebound leaders: Lyde-8, Jrl Brown-8

Assist leaders: Dunn-5, Jrl Brown-4

Player of the Game: Jerell Brown-13pts, 8 reb, 4 assists, 2 steals.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: PF Ali Lyde-14 pts, 8 reb, 1 assist, 1 steal.

Other notes: Hofstra shot well in the 2nd half to finish by hitting 41% of their shots. We hit 45%, but we hit only 1 of 13 threes. The referees awarded Hofstra 14 more free throws that we got. We controlled the boards, 35-25. Hofstra’s Beau Chenoweth ended with 16 points.

[PointGuard]

Game #7: Dec. 1, 2013; CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners (5-1) at Davidson Wildcats (2-3)

Davidson is another team with a high scoring SG…Samaki Neely is scoring 21.4 ppg.

Davidson hit 7 of their first 9 shots to pull away 23-10. Even being double-teamed, Samaki Neely sunk 4 straight threes and a jumper to account of 14 of their 23 points. Davidson continued to hit their shots, finishing by hitting 57% of their FG attempts and 9 of 12 of their threes. It didn’t help that we hit just 36% of our shots and that we made 10 turnovers (to Davidson’s 8) and were out-rebounded 15-12. The first half was tortuous and ended with us down 46-25. Ali Lyde scored 9 to lead us. Davidson’s Samaki Neely poured in 17 points.

In the first 6 minutes of the 2nd half, we applied a tough defense allowing us to cut Davidson’s lead to 48-36. Our rally continued as we continued to play with a new confidence. We trimmed their lead to 52-47 with 9:16 to go. At the 6:39 mark we cut their lead to a single point, 52-51. Davidson had scored just 5 points in the first 13-1/2 minutes of the half.

The Wildcats responded by hitting their next 2 shots to pull ahead 57-53. Turnovers became our nemesis at that point and Davidson opened a 64-58 lead. Jerell Brown knocked down a three with 45 seconds to play to make it 64-61. We had to make 3 fouls before getting them to the line, which we did with 23 seconds on the clock. They made both shots to make it a 2 possession game for us. Jerell Brown sunk another 3 with 12 seconds to play to make it 66-64. We fouled on the inbounds play but Davidson again made both shots. We quickly brought it up court but Darius Dunn’s three attempt went off the rim and the Wildcats rebounded. Game over.

Final Score: Davidson-68, CSU Bakersfield-64. CSU Bakersfield season record: 5-2.

Scoring leaders: Jrl Brown 18, Lyde-13, Powers-8.

Rebound leaders: Jrl Brown-8, Lyde-7, Williams-5.

Assist leaders: Dunn-5.

Player of the Game: Davidson’s SG Samaki Neely-24 pts, 5 reb,1 block.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: SG Jerell Brown-18 pts, 8 reb, 1 assist, 1 steal, 2 blocks.

Other notes: A disappointing loss, but our effort in the 2nd half was nearly heroic. We just ran out of clock. In the second half we cut their shooting down to 40% for the game while we hit 38%. We out-rebounded Davidson 37-30 but lost the turnover battle 17-15.

[PointGuard]

Game #8: Dec. 5, 2013; Alabama A&M Bulldogs (2-3) at CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners (5-2)

We held a small lead for most of the first 10 minutes of play, but they tied us at 16-16 with about 7 minutes left in the half. At that point we clamped down defensively and they were unable to score the rest of the half. We built a 33-16 halftime cushion, even though we only hit 28% of our shots. We controlled the boards and made few turnovers, plus the referees were generous toward us for a change. Jerell Brown scored 13 and Ali Lyde put 11 points on the board for us.

We built a double digit lead, then let the Bulldogs draw within 6 points. But the final 10 minutes were all Roadrunners as we built as much as a 20 point lead. We played the far end of the bench the last few minutes.

Final Score: CSU Bakersfield-62, Alabama A&M-46. CSU Bakersfield season record: 6-2.

Scoring leaders: Jrl Brown-16, Lyde-13.

Rebound leaders: Jsh Brown-8, Lyde-6, Pastner-6, Jrl Brown-5.

Assist leaders: Kamara-4.

Player of the Game: SG Jerell Brown-16 pts, 4 reb, 1 assist, 2 steals.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: PF Ali Lyde-13 pts, 6 reb, 1 assist, 2 steals.

Other notes: We only made 35% of our shots but we held Alabama A&M to 31% shooting. We had a 40-31 rebounding advantage and made just 12 turnovers while the Bulldogs committed 15 turnovers.

[PointGuard]

Game #9: Dec. 8, 2013; CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners (6-2) at Iona Gaels (4-1)

The Gaels got 9 free throws (making 7 of them) while we didn’t get to the line once. Otherwise we played them evenly. At the half we trailed 35-29. Ali Lyde scored 14 points.

Iona stomped on us early in the 2nd half and we fell behind by 20. We then woke up and fought our way back into the game, getting within 4 points, but unable to get closer.

Final Score: Iona-67, CSU Bakersfield-62. CSU Bakersfield season record: 6-3.

Scoring leaders: Jrl Lyde-20, Jrl Brown-14.

Rebound leaders: Jones-7, Williams-6, Jrl Brown-6.

Assist leaders: Dunn-6, Kamara-3, Jsh Brown-3.

Player of the Game: Iona’s C Derek May-12 pts, 10 reb, 3 assists, 2 blocks.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: PF Ali Lyde-20 pts, 4 reb, 1 steal.

Other notes: We hit 42% of our shots, Iona drilled in 49%. They also got 10 more free throw attempts (scoring 6 more points from the line than did we). Otherwise, team statistics were pretty even. Our team fought hard in the last 10 minutes to narrow the gap, but there wasn’t enough time to make up such a large deficit.

[PointGuard]

Point Guard:

Darius Dunn and Rashun Kamara have combined to score nearly 9 ppg and dish off apg. Dunn’s needs to improve his shooting, but his defense has been better than anticipated. Kevin Hill has seen limited action but has not been productive when playing PG this year.

Darius Dunn: 20.4 mpg, 5.8 ppg, 2.4 rpg, 4.2 apg, 0.7 spg, 0.7 bpg, 1.5 A/TO

Rashun Kamara: 13.8 mpg, 2.9 ppg, 1.6 rpg, 1.9 apg, 0.0 spg, 0.0 bpg, 1.2 A/TO

KevinHill: 8.4 mpg, 0.9 ppg, 1.2 rpg, 1.2 apg, 0.3 spg, 0.2 bpg, 1.2 A/TO

Shooting Guard:

Jerell Brown has exceeded our pre-season expectations, scoring and rebounding well and playing solid defense. Andrew Powers has filled in adequately when Brown has been on the bench, shooting well and playing very well defensively. Kevin Hill has been extremely unproductive during his limited play at SG.

Jerell Brown: 34.6 mpg, 21.0 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 1.2 apg, 1.4 spg, 0.3 bpg, 0.6 A/TO

Andrew Powers: 11.6 mpg, 3.4 ppg, 1.8 rpg, 0.7 apg, 0.7 spg, 0.4 bpg, 1.0 A/TO

Small Forward:

Justin Williams’ scoring is down from last year since he’s not shooting well yet, but he’s been strong on the boards and good defensively. Jeremy Jones has not played up to his potential or to the level he was playing last year offensively but has been good on the boards. He needs to regain his confidence on the offensive end of the court. Andrew Powers and Kevin Hill have spent time at SF also, but neither has been very productive there yet.

Justin Williams: 27.2 mpg, 4.9 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 1.1 apg, 0.6 spg, 0.7 bpg, 1.4 A/TO

Jeremy Jones: 8.6 mpg, 1.1 ppg, 2.7 rpg, 0.2 apg, 0.1 spg, 0.3 bpg, 0.6 A/TO

Power Forward:

Ali Lyde has been a real presence inside, scoring and rebounding well and defending extremely well. Jeremy Jones and Terrance WIatre have not been productive when filling in for Lyde.

Ali Lyde: 31.6 mpg, 13.3 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 1.4 apg, 0.8 spg, 0.4 bpg, 0.9 A/TO

Terrance Wiatre: 5.3 mpg, 1.4 ppg, 1.3 rpg, 0.3 apg, 0.1 spg, 0.0 bpg, 2.0 A/TO

Center:

Both Josh Brown and Marcelle Pastner have surprised us with their aggressiveness and game play. Together they are averaging about 10 ppg and 8-1/2 rpg. While not outstanding, both are adequate defensively. Geez, I’m glad I didn’t almost mistakenly redshirt Pastner this year.

Josh Brown: 21.9 mpg, 4.8 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 1.0 apg, 1.2 spg, 0.0 bpg, 0.9 A/TO

Marcelle Pastner: 14.4 mpg, 4.9 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 1.0 apg, 1.2 sgp, 0.0 bpg, 0.9 A/TO


Team Summary:

We’re scoring 64.3 ppg (250th best in the nation), but allowing just 57.8 ppg (17th best in the nation). Rebounding has been a strength. We’ve pulled down 37.1 rpg (14th best in the nation) and our opponents have only been able to grab 30.7 rpg (149th best in the nation. Two other areas of strength are blocks where we are averaging 3.2 bpg (41st best in the nation) and steals allowed (where we’ve only given up 3.8 spg (10th best in the nation). We’re unbeaten at home (5-0), but just 1-3 on the road. Our overall 6-3 record has given us an RPI that is 203rd best in the country.

[PointGuard]

Game #10: Dec. 12, 2013; CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners (6-3) at Furman Paladins (4-4)

Furman has played a tougher schedule than have we. Early this season Furman lost to #10 Arizona, when playing in Tucson. Then 11 days ago #1 Michigan came to Greenville, SC and the Paladins upset the heavily-favored Wolverines, 71-63. Furman has 5 players averaging in double figures, led by PG Steve Minor’s 17.0 ppg. We’ll have to play extremely well to win this game on Furman’s home floor.

Furman quickly established an 8 point lead, but then we roared back as Jerell Brown chipped in 14 first half points. At the intermission we held a 38-21 lead.

Furman made steady inroads into our lead in the 2nd half. All 11 players who got into the game for us scored, though.

Final Score: CSU Bakersfield-65, Furman-57. CSU Bakersfield season record: 7-3.

Scoring leaders: Jrl Brown-23, Williams-8.

Rebound leaders: Williams-9, Lyde-7, Jsh Brown-5.

Assist leaders: Dunn-7, Jsh Brown-4.

Player of the Game: SG Jerell Brown-23 pts, 2 reb, 1 assist.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: SF Justin Williams-8 pts, 9 reb, 1 assist.

Other notes: We had a very small edge in FG percentage, 3 pointers, and FT’s. Furman pulled down 35 rebounds to our 32, but we committed just 9 turnovers while Furman had 16.

[PointGuard]

Game #11: Dec. 15, 2013; CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners (7-3) at Florida International Golden Panthers (5-5)

Florida International is led by SG James Maye who is scoring at a 19.0 ppg clip.

Early in the game they hit some big threes and converted some of our turnovers into driving layups, but we kept close with good shooting. Midway through the half we clamped down defensively and moved out to a 9 point lead before letting them tighten it up at the end of the half. We led 33-28 at the half. We hit 59% of our shots to their 42% and we out-rebounded them 14-9. Our leading scorer was Ali Lyde with 9 points.

We played well in the first half...and...we played even better in the 2nd half. Defensively, we continued to frustrate the Panthers and offensively, we stepped up our offense to pull steadily away for an easy win.

Final Score: CSU Bakersfield-74, Florida International-57. CSU Bakersfield season record: 8-3.

Scoring leaders: Jrl Brown-19, Lyde-18.

Rebound leaders: Jsh Brown-9, Williams-5, Lyde-5.

Assist leaders: Kamara-5, Jrl Brown-3.

Player of the Game: SG Jerell Brown-19 pts, 3 reb, 3 assists, 5 steals.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: PF Ali Lyde-18 pts, 5 reb, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block.

Other notes: We shot well thoughout the game, finishing by hitting 51% whereas we held FIU to 41%. We also hit 50% of our threes. We controlled the boards, pulling down 33 rebounds to the Panthers 24. We made too many turnovers (14) but forced the Panthers to make 15. While Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside (Ali Lyde and Jerell Brown) stood out, almost all the rest of the team (and all of our players got into the game) played well and contributed to this win. We kept the Panthers’ Jame Maye in check, limiting him to 11 points.

After our two wins on the road this week, our RPI rose to 107th best in the country.

[PointGuard]

Game #12: Dec. 19, 2013; CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners (8-3) at Bowling Green Falcons (6-4)

Both teams played tenacious defense in the first half resulting in 10 turnovers by both teams. But we hit 50% of our shots while holding the Falcons to 32% shooting and we held a 17-13 rebounding advantage. We took a 29-23 lead to the locker room. Jerell Brown carried us offensively scoring 21 points, hitting 8 of 10 from the field.

Even though the referees were calling nearly ALL the fouls against us in the 2nd half, giving the Falcons many free throws, we hit FG’s when needed to maintain our lead. But after yet another foul on us, the Falcons hit the first, missed the 2nd, grabbed the rebound and dropped in a FG to narrow the score to 56-55 with 57 seconds left in the game. Pressing as they had done all night, they stole the ball. We were immediately called for yet another foul, both shots were sunk and we were behind 58-57 with 48 seconds on the clock. We called a time out but the pick and roll resulted in a missed shot. The Falcons hit a FG with 20 seconds left and we trailed by 3. We called another time out and set up a play to free Jerell Brown for a 3…he hit the shot with 7 seconds remaining. We pressed but Bowling Green was able to drop in a prayer as time expired.

Final Score: Bowling Green-62, CSU Bakersfield-59. CSU Bakersfield season record: 8-4.

Scoring leaders: Jrl Brown-32, Lyde-12.

Rebound leaders: Lyde-7.

Assist leaders: Dunn-6, Jrl Brown-3, Kamara-3.

Player of the Game: Bowling Green’s PG Reggie Clark-14 pts, 2 assists.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: SG Jerell Brown-32 pts, 3 reb, 3 assists, 1 steal.

Other notes: We dropped in 47% of our FG attempts. Bowling Green hit 41%. Bowling Green held a 29-27 rebounding advantage, but we forced them to make 18 turnovers (while making 15 ourselves). The deciding factor was that Bowling Green was awarded 17 more free throws and made 17 more points at the charity line. The win for Bowling Green was a gift from the referees.

[PointGuard]

Game #13: Dec. 22, 2013; Iowa State Cyclones (6-4) at CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners (8-4)

Iowa State is led by SG Willie Perry who’s scoring 20.7 ppg. They have played an extremely tough schedule with 9 of their 10 games against strong teams including losing to #1 Michigan and #2 Cincinnati and beating #14 Iowa and #16 Pittsburgh. We’ll have to play our best to pull off a win.

The game started slowly as neither team was hitting their shots, but we then rallied to take a 23-7 lead with 4:13 to go in the half. The Cyclones scored the next 8 points, but we were still able to take a 27-15 lead into the 2nd half. We held Iowa’s shooting to just 19% (the crowd was cheering DE-FENSE, DE-FENSE) while we hit 41%. Our leading scorers were Rashun Kamara and Jerell Brown, who both had 6 points.

We continued to roll in the 2nd half, stretching our lead to 20 points as we played well offensively and kept the Cyclones in check defensively as well. Everyone on our bench got significant play time.

Final Score: CSU Bakersfield-66, Iowa State-50. CSU Bakersfield season record: 9-4.

Scoring leaders: Jrl Brown-24, Pastner-10, Lyde-9, Jsh Brown-8.

Rebound leaders: Williams-9, Jsh Brown-6, Pastner-6, Jrl Brown-6.

Assist leaders: Kamura-5.

Player of the Game: SG Jerell Brown-24 pts, 6 reb, 1 assist, 1 steal.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: C Marcelle Pastner-10 pts, 6 reb, 1 assist, 1 steal.

Other notes: We hit 45% of our shots. Iowa State shot better in the 2nd half but still finished by hitting just 33% of their FG attempts. We held the Cyclone’s Willie Perry to 9 points on 4 of 20 shooting. We out-rebounded the Cyclones 40-32. We made 15 turnovers while Iowa State made only 12.

I was extremely proud of the game we played…a great combination of offense and defense against a strong team.