Thursday, February 5, 2015

Terriers stretch league streak to six with close road dismissal of ETSU

The Terriers advanced to 10-1 in league play with a 74-64 win over ETSU in Johnson City, Tenn., on Thursday evening.

Some trends seen throughout the contest:

Although Wofford had a comfortable lead for most of the second half, the Bucs came alive in the final minutes -- especially through Desonta Bradford's performance off the bench. The Humboldt, Tenn., native came in for the fouled-out Lester Wilson, racking up fourteen points and a team-leading three steals, along with an impressive 6-for-7 mark from the free-throw line.

Bradford was a piece to puzzle that ETSU coach Murry Bartow nearly solved, as his Bucs (13-9, 6-6 conf.), which found themselves down by as many as twenty-two points with time winding down in the second half of play, staged a 22-8 run to come within six of the league-leading Terriers.

Like in their last meeting, both teams committed a bevy of fouls -- the Bucs were called for 28, to be exact -- and Wofford converted on 29 of 43 foul shots. Now, when you look at that number, it may not seem so disheartening from a percentage standpoint; however, when you think about the sheer amount of free throws, that's a solid amount of missed opportunities -- another one of the factors contributing to the would-be comeback for ETSU.

Lee Skinner, who fouled out with a little over a minute to play in the game, posted a double-double with a squad-high sixteen points and ten rebounds. C.J. Neumann again turned in a strong defensive performance, as five of his seven boards were off the ETSU glass. In fact, the Terriers out-rebounded the Buccaneers on both fronts, grabbing 28 defensive boards and an additional eight of the offensive variety.

Among the other leaders were Eric Garcia, who played a gritty game, dishing out three assists, a mark shared by Karl Cochran. Jaylen Allen also swiped the basketball three times. Wofford shot 47 percent from the field and 31 percent from long distance.

The turnover problem lingered once again this evening, as the Terriers coughed it up seventeen times. ETSU, though, didn't fare too much better, as they committed fifteen turnovers. Wofford, which dealt with a few major issues late against this Buc defense, just notched another -- albeit too close for comfort -- win, road triumph, in SoCon play.

No comments:

Post a Comment