by CoachC » Fri Jan 17, 2014 5:31 am
We return to the Big East portion of the schedule tonight, and Angelli is finally at full strength fortunately, because we are going to need him. Fredericks is also at amost 100% now and will be available if needed. Angelli will be back in the starting lineup tonight in place of Stetson, and Thompson will start at the point for the first time this season.
The Golden Eagles (I still want to call them the Warriors) have had 6 straight NCAA appearances including the championship game 2 years ago. Last season they were 26-7 and advanced to the round of 32. They have a win over #22 OK. ST and a road win at Georgia. Their only loss was a surprising 9 point loss at home to Green Bay. Their offense is very perimeter oriented so we need to get out on the shooters and stop the dribble drive.
We couldn't have looked more hapless offensively in the first 20 minutes if we tried. Unable to hit shots from the perimeter again, and unable to find Ray in the low post, and our point guards playing hot potato with the basketball, we find ourselves trailing at intermission 22-30. We have to start playing as a team in the 2nd half and get this near capacity crowd into the game.
After trailing by as much as 15 early in the 2nd half, the crowd willed us back into this one, as we got stop after stop at the defensive end, finally taking our first lead of the game with 1:13 remaining. Pat Bullock hit two clutch freethrows with :18 to seal it and we escape with a 5 point lead.
Our defense is way ahead of our offense at this point. Struggling from the perimeter, defenses are able to collapse on Ray and he rarely is even to get a touch from closer than 10 feet. Having Angelli back tonight certainly made a defense, but it's time to watch some game tapes and try to fix our ailing offense.
Angelli led us with 11 pts, 2 asts, 8 rebs, 2 stls and a block, and thank goodness we had him back for this one as he put the team on his back at both ends as we made our comeback.
Houston again was our only other player in double figures with 10
Johnson had another solid game with 7 points, 11 rebs, 2 asts, 3 stls, and a block, but is not someone we can look to for a lot of offense. He scores mostly on putbacks and knows his place on the team...rebounding and defense, and excels at both.
We played a lot of offense to defense in this one, with Inyo and Ray on the court together much of the time in a double low post which helped some. Ray was still not a huge factor for us tonight, however, on offense, but still is a defensive workhorse. He had just 6 pts, and only 3 rebounds but did have 3 stls and 3 blocks.
Inyo played well off the bench with 6 points, 5 rebs, 2 stls, and a block, and we may have to play him and Ray together more to get touches inside. If they continue to triple team Ray, Inyo can and will score.
other than Inyo, not a lot of offense off the bench tonight, although Stetson played some good defensive minutes, and Gerren did hit a three near the end of the first half when we drew a play up for him out of the huddle.
This game wasn't pretty at all, and although it was nice to get a win over a ranked team, we should be better than this. We've got work to do. We can't keep shooting under 40% and keep winning.
Come from behind final: UNM 54 Marquette 49