FOUR FACTORS (plus two)
eFG%
Mocs- 46.2%
Appalachian State- 47.6%
Advantage- Appalachian State
TO%
Mocs- 12.4%
Appalachian State- 14.0%
Advantage- Mocs
OR%
Mocs- 22.2%
Appalachian State- 22.5%
Advantage- Appalachian State
FTRate
Mocs- 47.2%
Appalachian State- 14.5%
Advantage- Mocs
FT%
Mocs- 64.0%
Appalachian State- 44.4%
Advantage- Mocs
3PtRate
Mocs- 28.3%
Appalachian State- 41.9%
PLAYER RATER
Overall
1t) Ricky Taylor 22.7
1t) Jahmal Burroughs 22.7
3) Drazen Zlovaric 21.0
4) Z Mason 14.9
5) Dontay Hampton 13.7
6) Keegan Bell 9.0
7) Lance Stokes 8.2
8) Jared Bryant 3.2
9) Rico White 0.1
Per 40
1) Jahmal Burroughs 43.1
2) Z Mason 31.3
3) Lance Stokes 27.3
4) Jared Bryant 25.6
5) Ricky Taylor 25.2
6) Drazen Zlovaric 23.9
7) Dontay Hampton 23.8
8) Keegan Bell 9.2
9) Rico White 0.4
ANALYSIS
Exhilirating. There's only one place to start here, and that's with Dontay Hampton's buzzer beater shot. Before we get any further into that, remember- Hampton got the rebound and took it coast to coast. Hampton had seven rebounds. Think about that. Small little Dontay Hampton, former walk-on, just collected seven rebounds, drove the ball coast to coast and came up with a huge, well defended shot at the buzzer to bring the Mocs back from twelve down to come up with a two point win. Can you ask for any more from any Mocs player? I sure can't. Tremendous effort by Hampton. He's slowly working his way up my favorite players list.
This was a day that the Mocs could have folded. They had excuses. Lots of them. Chris Early is still suspended, but that's hardly an excuse anymore. However, Omar Wattad came out during shoot around and could not get his back loose. So he could not play. I know Wattad is a good offensive player, but I never realized just how important he was. There were many times during the game that I sat there and thought, "No- really. Where are the points going to come from here?" On top of all that, Keegan Bell shot a nightmarish 1 of 13 from the floor and just 1 of 10 from three point range. Yes, the one was huge. Without Wattad, and with Bell struggling, where was the scoring going to come from? Ricky Taylor played well, scoring 19, but really, where was the rest of the scoring going to come from?
And for all those reasons, the Mocs could have folded in this one. Down 12 halfway through the second half, the Mocs could have given in. I'm going to say again, last year's team WOULD have folded in that situation. I've said that several times this year. The Mocs are a hard working team, that don't give up this year. They are not the most consistent team ever. But they keep on fighting all the way to the end.
I wish they could have gotten the ball into Drazen Zlovaric more. He was the one that was going to end the long droughts that the Mocs kept on going on. However, they did not do it. Bell, who was ice cold, shot the ball 13 times, and Zlovaric shot it just seven. Really, that's borderline unacceptable. In fact, this is what I was going to focus on if the Mocs lost. Since they won, I'm going to back off of it a little bit. Also, the ice in Bell's veins must be frigid. To step up and make that three with two minutes left after missing all those shots to start with- clutch. So, obviously my views might be wrong on this.
The other two players to really talk about are Jahmal Burroughs and Z Mason. Burroughs really stepped up when the Mocs needed him most. He scored eleven points and had eight rebounds. The two combined to shoot 6 of 9 from the floor, 6 of 9 from the free throw line, 14 rebounds, including three offensive boards, 18 points, an assist, and a block, in forty minutes. Eighteen and fourteen in 40 minutes? Yes, sir, I will take that every night from the four spot.
Truthfully, despite the way the numbers play out in the player rater, I was not overly impressed with Jared Bryant or Lance Stokes in this game (other than Stokes incredibly athletic put back in the first half). I've been high on both Bryant and Stokes this year. I also was disappointed in White, who has regressed to some degree in recent weeks. I've been very high on White this year as well, so this is not a condemnation of their play on the whole, just saying that tonight was a disappointment on that front.
But in the end, the Mocs came up with the win. They did not rebound as well. They did not force nearly as many turnovers as I thought they would have to to win the game, forcing just nine. But the turned the ball over just eight times. They did not make quite as many hustle plays as they did against Western Carolina on Thursday. They did not shoot the three well. They did not pound the ball to Zlovaric as much as I would like. Ricky "Mr. Consistent Therefore Goes Relatively Unnoticed" Taylor played exactly like I thought he would once I heard that Wattad was not going to play.
Hampton's shot won it. It was thrilling. The Mocs are back to 2-2 in SoCon play, and are now one game out of first in the North (behind Western Carolina by one game), and are a half game behind Elon. They are tied with Appalachian State for third. I said they needed to win four of these next five before going to Elon, at least. And now they are 2-0. They have won six of eight overall.
Great night. Didn't play great- found a way to win.
GO MOCS!
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