Game #1, Nov. 15, 2013: Eastern Washington Eagles (0-0) at Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks (0-0)
The Lumberjacks run a slow-paced offense. While their primary offense set is the 5-out, they play with a lot of offensive freedom and try to work the ball inside. Defensively they primarily employ a man-to-man defense. SG Kevin Bryant and C Charlie Turner are their go-to guys.
The first half was a disaster for us, as the Lumberjacks built a 51-29 halftime lead. So much for them running a slow-down offense. I chewed out the team during the intermission since they were out-rebounded 21-5 and gave up 11 offensive rebounds to Stephen F. Austin resulting in 19 second chance points and 28 points in the paint. We hit 54% of our shots, but the Lumberjacks dropped in 57% of theirs. Michael Taylor came off the bench to lead our scoring with 8 points.
We shot well and cut the lead to 7 points at 67-60 with 7 minutes to play. With 1:39 to play the score was 80-75. But we turned the ball over twice from that point and were unable to score again.
Final Score: Stephen F. Austin (1-0)—80, Eastern Washington (0-1)—75.
Team stats:
FG %: 67% (29-45) vs 47% (29-62) in favor of EWU
FT %: 88% (15-17) vs 76% (19-25) in favor of EWU
3 pt %: 43% (3-7) vs 40% (2-5) in favor of SFA
Reb: 30 (including 16 offensive reb) vs 19 in favor of SFA [ouch!]
Turnovers: 9 vs 14 in favor of SFA [Argh!]
Blocks: 3 vs 2 in favor of EWU
Steals: 5 vs 2 in favor of SFA
Assists: 11 vs 10 in favor of EWU
Fouls: 19 vs 24 in favor of SFA
Pts in paint: 42 vs36 in favor of SFA
2nd chance pts: 25 vs 3 in favor of SFA [Ouch!!]
Fast break pts: 16 vs 4 in favor of SFA [Ouch!!]
Biggest lead: 24 vs 2 in favor of SFA [Ouch!!!]
Lead changes: 4
Times tied: 3
Leading Eagles’ players: C Michael Taylor—15 points, 5 rebounds; PG Robbie Taflinger—10 points; PF Cory Davis—9 points; and PG Tim Dove—4 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists.
Stephen F. Austin’s SG Kevin Bryant was the player of the game with 18 points, 2 rebounds, and 2 assists.