I'll Be a Son of a Shark

[CoachC]

Larry: Tough loss the other night on the road

Gary: Yes, it was a game we could have, probably should have won, and those are always tough. Still, I have to tip my hat to the Panthers. Playing under adversity, They've made quite a stretch run and are still in position for the conference championship.

Larry: Senior Night for our 5 seniors. A lot on the line. A chance to run the table at home for the season, and a win clinches a share of the conference championship. Season high attendance of 4200 should help. Last time there were that many people here in this building it was for a concert.

Gary: Yes. We have to stay focused and not look past the Keydets. A team that likes to play spoiler, with a balanced offensive attack. Just because we won at their place doesn't mean we can look past them tonight. We need more of what we had when we played them on the road...balanced scoring. And hopefully 'Zilla used his last outing as a starting point for a strong finish. Our offense is so much better when Josh is looking to score inside.

Larry: A little help from Radford and Charleston Southern tonight won't hurt either, with Presbyterian and High Point both on the road. Good luck, Coach. Let's run the table.

A dismal offensive first half for us as they opened in a 1-2-2 zone and we didn't respond well. Forcing 11 turnovers on 6 steals managed to keep it even at halftime 23-23.

Sometimes when you are playing poorly at home you just have to make a gut check. Trailing by 7 with about 12 minutes to go, I asked our guys to do that and they responded in a big way. Defensively in the man they got up in the numbers and challenged every pass. In the Amoeba we were voracious with the traps. We got back to playing the Bulldog way, turning them over 21 times on 11 steals and creating offense out of defense. We wound up winning going away.

Battle and Feeley combined for 16 points , 9 asts, 3 stls and 2 blocks and just 3 turnovers at the point.

Felts had his best game in a while with 19 pts to lead us

Jeffers 14 pts, 5 rebs, and 2 stls

Moore was instrumental as usual with 6 rebs and 4 steals, all of them in the stretch drive.

O'Conner had 9 pts, 5 rebs but played much better than his line. 'Zilla played some of his best defense all season, and showing his willingness to take it to the basket again opened things up for Felts and Jeffers in the 2nd half.

Sheals and Brown did their usual thing, giving us some points, rebounds and defense.

Certainly not one of our best performances of the season for the first 28 minutes, but the last 12 minutes of the game we were at our best.

We run the table at home and clinch a share of the regular season title, assuring us of no worse than the 2nd seed.


Final:

G-W 66 VMI 52

[CoachC]

Feb 19: High Point continued to roll winning their 6th in a row without Jones on the road, and taking over sole possession of 2nd place 1 game back as Presbyterian lost on the road to Radford.

Our loss on the road to High Point dropped our RPI to 50, but we need to remain focused on repeating as conference champion and determining our own fate.

[CoachC]

Larry: Big game tonight in the season finale. High Point is at home tonight. We just need to win this one coach, and clinch the regular season title.

Gary: Yes, our guys are fired up, we just have to hope it translates into good play on the court. We had a very good game against these guys at home. We'll need at least as good an effort tonight.

Excellent effort at both ends of the court in the first half, and balanced inside/outside scoring on offense, as 'Zilla seems to have gotten his confidence back.

At the half we are way out in front 45-27

Balanced scoring on offense and excellent half court defense allow us to win easily despite just a +1 advantage in turnovers in this one (a/to 21/9, 14/10) although we did have 8 steals.

Jeffers led a trio of players with 20+ for the game with 23 pts, 8 rebs.

Godzilla was dominant inside with 22 (did Evans "hypmotize" him?)

and after a slow start in the first half, Felts found his groove and was hot in the 2nd half scoring 20.

Battle and Feeley combined for 15 pts, 10 asts, Moore had 4 steals, Brown and Sheals did their usual solid thing.

We shoot 50% for the game on the road, and hold them to 38.8.

We not only become the first Gardner-Webb team to win a regular season title since their last season in the Atlantic Sun conference, we also become the first to win 20 games in DI. The guys are celebratory and happy, and it's a nice charter flight home.

Final happy score:

G-W 86 CC 64

[CoachC]

Feb 26: We finish the regular season with an RPI of 49 so there are no delusions about this being a 2 team league in the dance. We have to take care of business in the tournament. As top seed we will get a first round bye and play the winner of the 8-9 game between Asheville and Liberty. The entire tournament this year will take place at it's new "neutral" site, the HTC center same place it was held last year. Not sure exactly how the Big Blue Chickens' home court is a "neutral" site but nobody asked me for my vote. The opportunity to bring in more money by keeping the tournament close to Myrtle Beach was too much for the conference to vote down apparently. In any event, the HTC center will host the tournament for at least the next 3 seasons.

[CoachC]

Mar 1: Big South tournament First Round results:

(8) NC-Asheville 66 (9) Liberty 74
(5) Coastal Carolina 60 (12) Charleston Southern 79 ...thank goodness the "neutral" hosts of this venue get an early exit out of our bracket.
(6) Radford 75 (11) Winthrop 71
(7) Campbell 55 (10) VMI 57. Yay! Soup Noodles go home!

[CoachC]

Mar 2: Big South tournament round 2

(9) Liberty v (1) Gardner-Webb
(12) Charleston Southern v (4) Longwood
(6) Radford v (3) Presbyterian
(10) VMI (2) High Point

[Wayne23]

Way to go, Coach!

[CoachC]

Thx, Wayne.

[PointGuard]

Beat Liberty.,..and the next two (whoever that may be)!

[CoachC]

Thx, PG! may need it, much tougher conference this year. Top 4 seeds will all be playing in the post-season somewhere.