FOUR FACTORS (plus two)
eFG%
Mocs- 46.3%
Western Carolina- 51.5%
Advantage- Western Carolina
TO%
Mocs- 24.5%
Western Carolina- 15.5%
Advantage- Western Carolina
OR%
Mocs- 36.4%
Western Carolina- 38.6%
Advantage-Western Carolina
FTRate
Mocs- 64.8%
Western Carolina- 33.9%
Advantage- Mocs
FT%
Mocs- 74.3%
Western Carolina- 68.2%
Advantage- Mocs
3PtRate
Mocs- 51.9%
Western Carolina- 63.1%
PLAYER RATER
Overall
1) Keegan Bell 23.7
2) Lance Stokes 20.6
3) Omar Wattad 20.4
4) Jared Bryant 19.7
5) Dontay Hampton 16.5
6) Rico White 13.0
7) Ricky Taylor 4.1
8) Drazen Zlovaric 1.7
9) Martynas Bareika 1.2
10) Drew Baker -2.3
Per 40
1) Lance Stokes 45.7
2) Rico White 40.0
3) Jared Bryant 34.2
4) Dontay Hampton 31.4
5) Keegan Bell 25.0
6) Omar Wattad 24.0
7) Martynas Bareika 12.0
8) Ricky Taylor 7.8
9) Drazen Zlovaric 6.2
10) Drew Baker -5.4
ANALYSIS
Western Carolina used a dominant first 35 minutes of the game to hold off the Mocs on Thursday night. They were up 16 with just over five minutes left before the Mocs sliced the lead to four with about two minutes left and again with just over half a minute left.
Without Jahmal Burroughs or Z Mason again, the Mocs had to use a patchwork lineup again. Jared Bryant again showed that there is plenty to be very enthusiastic about in the coming years. Lance Stokes also played his best game as a Moc. He looked into the game on the defensive end, and consistently showed his athleticism and his offensive ability on that end of the floor. That being said, Drazen Zlovaric looked like a shell of himself. I wonder if there is an injury, because, regardless of how poor he was playing, there really is no reason to only play him eleven minutes in a game where there were this many injured bigs.
The biggest problem was Tawaski King. He was dominant on the boards, coming up with 14 including seven on the offensive end. The Mocs dominated the boards against Western Carolina in Chattanooga. I warned that if this was a close battle on the boards, that would be a very bad sign for the Mocs chances to win. Sure enough, the difference was one rebound in favor of the Mocs, and they were dominated for much of the night.
The thing that kept the Mocs in the game at all was that Western fell in love with the three when Keaton Cole and Brandon Boggs were hitting them in the first half. They wound up shooting well over 60% of their shots from three point range, and were not hitting them in the second half. This let the Mocs hang around and gave them the ability to make a run at the end to get into the game.
Ricky Taylor was held without a field goal. He is really struggling right now. Ironically, it looks like Keegan Bell has officially come out of his slump. He played a very good game on Thursday night.
Dontay Hampton and Rico White continued to show that they are going to be a solid duo next year when playing time opens up.
There is hope for next year. White, Hampton, Bryant, Mason, Zlovaric, and Stokes have all shown very good bright moments throughout this season. With Farrad Cobb coming in, he should be able to contribute immediately. Put those seven in a rotation and see what happens. I don't think the Mocs would be great, but they would be a contender in the SoCon.
As for the remainder of this year, things are starting to look bleak. The good news is that the team does not look completely broken yet. They fought back tonight when it would have been easy to give in. I was worried that the team's spirit would be broken. The first 35 minutes of this game did nothing to make me feel like they had not had their spirit broken. But the last five minutes, the Mocs fought back and showed a little spirit. Maybe they aren't broken. But at this point, just getting out of last in the North is going to be a major challenge. They are behind the Catamounts by one game, and the Mocs play Davidson on the road on Saturday night. Not a good place to be.
GO MOCS!
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