Post Game Shower- Longwood

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The Mocs 74-70 win over Longwood was a mixed bag. For example, let's look at the bad things first.

The Mocs were outrebounded again by a much smaller team team. This time, it was a 40-36 rebounding disadvantage. Most frustrating, they gave up 17 offensive rebounds to the Lancers. That is almost unacceptable. In fact, I again chalk that up to lack of desire and effort. While the desire and the effort were better today in a lot of ways, that is not a good indication.

Today, the Mocs did make 16 of 22 free throws, or 72.7 percent. That shows that the focus was there better today than yesterday. Yesterday they lost by 11 while making 40 percent of their free throws. If they had made 75 percent yesterday, they would have lost by just four, which would have made the final minutes at least interesting.

It was a back and forth game. It was never out of hand in either direction. In fact, Longwood's early 9-0 lead may have been the only time the whole game that either team should have really felt good about things until the end.

For all those people that thought the Mocs offense was the problem, they certainly improved on THAT today. They shot 49 percent from the field, and made 50 percent of their threes. The biggest problem was the 22 turnovers, but they narrowed that down to just nine in the second half, which is why the second half seemed so much better.

Ridge McKeither had a couple of moments that he simply took over the game. He scored eight straight at one point and ended with 19. Ricky Taylor finally had another good game, ending with 21.

Dante Harvey is pressing. He has scored just one point in three games. Also, unless there is an injury that I have not heard about yet, why did DeAntre Jefferson not play more than seven minutes? He had been the player who had been playing the best lately. He barely saw the floor today. Neither did Jasper Williams, who played just four minutes, and Dontay Hampton, who was in there just six.

Keegan Bell was not absolutely brilliant. He scored just five points. But he did dish out eleven assists and come up with three steals. He has it in him, but he is still clearly working off the rust.

Should the Mocs be pleased to beat Longwood by four? No, of course not. But this team was really struggling to play even a decent game away from home. Just coming up with a win and getting that moneky off our back was huge.

Sometimes just coming up with a win supercedes how it is done. The Mocs needed a win as badly as they have ever needed one. They got that.

If you had told me before the season that we would be 3-3 after November, I would have taken it. I was afraid of 2-4. I was hoping for 4-2. I thought we would go 3-3. Of course, I thought we would lose to ETSU and beat UTPA. Due to the different results in those two games, the 3-3 is pretty bittersweet. But I'll take it.

LOOKING AHEAD

The Mocs head to Jacksonville State on Tuesday night at 7:00. For those people that think the Gamecocks should be an easy win, Jacksonville State lost by just three at Georgia yesterday. They are 2-3, but their lone D1 win is a 22 point beatdown of Georgia Southern. Again, with the Mocs not having much success away from home, and not having won a true road game yet, this will be a very big challenge to the Mocs.

GO MOCS!