SoCon Wednesday Review

Elon 81, UNCG 68

Key Stat: UNCG eFG of 36.6%. Wow. This was a disaster for the Spartans. They made just 2 of 17 from three point range. They made 35.2% from the field. The Spartans have to shoot the ball better than that if they are going to win games. They can shoot better than that. They need to.

Player of the Game: Jack Isenbarger. Isenbarger scored 17 points, collected four rebounds and dished out four assists. He made 4 of 9 from the field, 2 of 4 from three and 7 of 8 from the free throw line. Isenbarger is a very good player who has been playing much better lately.

What It All Means: For the whole SoCon- the bye race is almost over! The top five are all but set. Davidson, Chattanooga, Wofford, Elon and Western Carolina will have the byes in Asheville almost certainly. Western Carolina needs to just win one more game. For the Phoenix, this kept them even with Wofford in the loss column as we head into the final three games. Both Wofford and Phoenix play Davidson and also play each other. Odds are, the team that wins that game is the team that finishes ahead of the other one. The Phoenix played a near flawless game tonight. They shot the ball well from all over the floor, played excellent defense, got to the free throw line and made their freebies. They did not rebound particularly well, but everything else was solid. This may have been Elon's best performance since beating Western Carolina. For UNCG, they are now in a four way tie in the loss column with Georgia Southern, Appalachian State and Samford. They are in a real dog fight for the six through nine seed. Each of those spots (save the difference between the eight and nine spot) are critical. The Spartans did not play particularly well tonight. Kayel Locke picked up four fouls and RJ White fouled out. The Spartans have got to learn to play defense without fouling. If they can do that, the Spartans can win the SoCon Tournament. If not, they better do it during the offseason. If they get better on that in the offseason, they can win the SoCon next year. The pieces are in place. The defensive discipline is not.