The Mocs dominated the game from the beginning and never really seemed to let up. The amazing thing for the Mocs is that two of their starters did not score a point. Jeremy Saffore did not score, and that was not too surprising. But Keegan Bell not scoring was a pretty unusual situation. Bell, though, did come up with eight assists. He turned the ball over four times as well. He had three steals and three rebounds, but he only took two shots. That was an interesting stat.
Montreat tried to put a lot of pressure on Bell, hoping to force him into some bad decisions. He responded relatively well.
Troy Cage, who needed to have a big night to get into a rhythm, lead the team with 16 points, which was really nice to see now that everyone knows that Josh Odem is not coming back to this team this season. Jeff Smith, who is also going to figure more prominently into the lineup with Odem gone, scored 15, as did Omar Wattad. Dontay Hampton, another important figure with Odem out, scored 11. Ricky Taylor put in 13. DeAntre Jefferson added nine points and ten rebounds.
The Mocs did not dominate the boards like they should have against Montreat. They outrebounded them 46-41. They allowed Steve McBurrough to come up with twelve rebounds.
However, the Mocs were tenacious on defense yet again, allowing Montreat to shoot just 25 percent from the floor. They forced just sixteen turnovers, but a ton of missed shots. The Mocs did the same thing against Reinhardt.
The defense has become the backbone of this team, to go along with the rebounding that normally accompanies the team. Bell does a good job getting the Mocs into their offense, and the rest of the guys seem to be responding right now.
It's hard to take much from this game, but the Mocs have to be pleased that they are playing such good defense lately. The challenges return tomorrow when they take on a CAA team in Georgia State at 7:00 in the Dr Pepper Classic Championship Game.
GO MOCS!
No comments:
Post a Comment