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Friday, December 14, 2007
The biggest difference between the Army team that downed Florida Gulf Coast last night and the Black Knights of a few years ago might boil down to this: The Cadets of old would try to win and fail at it. Last night's team tried to give one away and failed.
As Jim Crews was quick to point out in the postgame, FGCU is not a typical first-year Division I team. They have a mature roster, with a host of seniors, most of whom are transfers from schools in pretty decent conferences like the Big Ten and the MAC.
But they still came to snow-covered West Point 3-6, the three wins all coming against teams with a combined RPI of 918.
So what was Army doing trailing 32-26 at the half?
"We were just awful defensively in transition in the first half. They got five or six threes because we were scrambling around and not finding a man. They did a great job exposing that," said Crews.
FGCU shot 48 percent from the field in the first half (12-25), with 6 of their 12 field goals coming from the arc (6-12). The biggest beneficiary of Army's defensive woes was FGCU's Delvin Franklin, who was 4 for 4 from three-point range in the half, including two of the four threes that fueled FCGU's late 12-2 run that gave them the lead at the break.
It didn't help any that Jarrell Brown, Army's leading scorer, was 1 for 7 from the field in the first half.
The Eagles kept that lead for most of the first eight minutes of the second half and were still even with Army (48-48) with 11:05 to play when the Black Knights went on an 11-0 run that should have put the game away.
But up 59-48 with 7:44 to go, Army let FGCU get right back in the game with an 11-2 run, pulling tow within 2 (61-58) on a Rob Quaintance trey with 4 minutes left.
Army scored just one field goal the rest of the way -- a Cleveland Richards layup with 2:06 on the clock -- and went 3 for 6 from the foul line in the last 4 minutes. But they held FGCU to one field goal and a pair of free throws down the stretch and survived Quaintance's desperation heroics at the end.
With two seconds left, and Army up by 4, Quaintance was foolishly fouled by Army's Mitch McDonald. Quaintance made the first and managed to get his own rebound after intentionally missing the second. But his desperate heave at the buzzer was off the mark, allowing Army to escape with the win.
That final miss was one of 10 missed threes in the second half for FCGU, which followed its 6 for 12 first half with a 10 for 12 second half from the arc. Army held the Eagles to 8 second half field goals (on 30 tries, 26.7 percent).
Said Crews, "That was really great to see the kids respond and have that resiliency. We really dug in during the second half.”
The defense was not all that improved in the second half. Brown, who finished with 12 points, was just 2 for 5 from the field after intermission, but got to the line 6 times, making 5. Brown's streak of double figures games is now at seven, but his streak of 6 straight 20-point performances ended.
After an 11 for 26 (42.3 percent) first half shooting effort, the Black Knights were 14 for 26 (53.8 percent) after the break. Had they shot better at the foul line (10-19 in the second half, 12-22 for the game), it never would have come down to Quaintance's missed shot.
A good sign for Army -- three players reached double figures, led by sophomore Marcus nelson's career-best 14 points. Nelson tied his career assists mark with 7 dishes. Josh Miller (6 for 8 from the field) added 13 for Army. Doug Williams had 10 rebounds for the Black Knights.
It was the first time all season Army had three players reach double figures and the first Army win in a game in which Brown was not the team's leading scorer. It was also Army's first win when Brown did not score at least 20 points.
With six inches of snow falling in West Point, Army offered free admission. Announced attendance was 216, though the Army gameblog suggested far fewer actually were in the stands. The gameblog (link below), by the way, was a first by Army's sports info folks and the first such official effort by any Patriot League school. It's worth the click.
Box score | Army gameblog | Postgame quotes | Times Herald-Record | News-Press
As Jim Crews was quick to point out in the postgame, FGCU is not a typical first-year Division I team. They have a mature roster, with a host of seniors, most of whom are transfers from schools in pretty decent conferences like the Big Ten and the MAC.
But they still came to snow-covered West Point 3-6, the three wins all coming against teams with a combined RPI of 918.
So what was Army doing trailing 32-26 at the half?
"We were just awful defensively in transition in the first half. They got five or six threes because we were scrambling around and not finding a man. They did a great job exposing that," said Crews.
FGCU shot 48 percent from the field in the first half (12-25), with 6 of their 12 field goals coming from the arc (6-12). The biggest beneficiary of Army's defensive woes was FGCU's Delvin Franklin, who was 4 for 4 from three-point range in the half, including two of the four threes that fueled FCGU's late 12-2 run that gave them the lead at the break.
It didn't help any that Jarrell Brown, Army's leading scorer, was 1 for 7 from the field in the first half.
The Eagles kept that lead for most of the first eight minutes of the second half and were still even with Army (48-48) with 11:05 to play when the Black Knights went on an 11-0 run that should have put the game away.
But up 59-48 with 7:44 to go, Army let FGCU get right back in the game with an 11-2 run, pulling tow within 2 (61-58) on a Rob Quaintance trey with 4 minutes left.
Army scored just one field goal the rest of the way -- a Cleveland Richards layup with 2:06 on the clock -- and went 3 for 6 from the foul line in the last 4 minutes. But they held FGCU to one field goal and a pair of free throws down the stretch and survived Quaintance's desperation heroics at the end.
With two seconds left, and Army up by 4, Quaintance was foolishly fouled by Army's Mitch McDonald. Quaintance made the first and managed to get his own rebound after intentionally missing the second. But his desperate heave at the buzzer was off the mark, allowing Army to escape with the win.
That final miss was one of 10 missed threes in the second half for FCGU, which followed its 6 for 12 first half with a 10 for 12 second half from the arc. Army held the Eagles to 8 second half field goals (on 30 tries, 26.7 percent).
Said Crews, "That was really great to see the kids respond and have that resiliency. We really dug in during the second half.”
The defense was not all that improved in the second half. Brown, who finished with 12 points, was just 2 for 5 from the field after intermission, but got to the line 6 times, making 5. Brown's streak of double figures games is now at seven, but his streak of 6 straight 20-point performances ended.
After an 11 for 26 (42.3 percent) first half shooting effort, the Black Knights were 14 for 26 (53.8 percent) after the break. Had they shot better at the foul line (10-19 in the second half, 12-22 for the game), it never would have come down to Quaintance's missed shot.
A good sign for Army -- three players reached double figures, led by sophomore Marcus nelson's career-best 14 points. Nelson tied his career assists mark with 7 dishes. Josh Miller (6 for 8 from the field) added 13 for Army. Doug Williams had 10 rebounds for the Black Knights.
It was the first time all season Army had three players reach double figures and the first Army win in a game in which Brown was not the team's leading scorer. It was also Army's first win when Brown did not score at least 20 points.
With six inches of snow falling in West Point, Army offered free admission. Announced attendance was 216, though the Army gameblog suggested far fewer actually were in the stands. The gameblog (link below), by the way, was a first by Army's sports info folks and the first such official effort by any Patriot League school. It's worth the click.
Box score | Army gameblog | Postgame quotes | Times Herald-Record | News-Press
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