Men's Basketball Team Rolls over Principia with Ease
TC Fleming
Issue date: 12/4/07 Section: Sports
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UD won the opening tip and every meaningful point of contention after that. Sophomore guard Jeff Pritchard turned the tip in to the game's first shot. He was off-target, but junior guard Anthony Garrett's accuracy worked just fine, scoring two on the put-back. The two points were the first of 11 straight UD scored to open the game, highlighted by five from Pritchard.
Principia found their first points of the game when forward Reeves McLaughlin put in a shot from under the basket while drawing the foul, putting the score at 11-3. Responding to this scoring threat, UD came back with 13 more in a row with senior center Joe Packard contributing six points and a board. The rout was on, with UD leading, 24-3.
Principia assembled their best run of the game yet in response, hitting two lay-ups for four straight. They killed any possible momentum with a traveling call ending their next possession. Traveling fouls were a problem for Principia all night, as such calls ended many a possession as UD assembled its early lead.
Based on how the game played out, observers may have thought the teams were only allowed to play on UD's end of the court. Principia had trouble consistently putting together quality offensive possessions, often settling for outside shots. Too often, those shots would miss and get pulled down by UD.
On the other end, UD had no trouble holding the ball, making few mistakes passing and hitting 43.8% of their shots for the game. Principia actually hit a better percent, 48.6%, but had far fewer opportunities (37 for Principia vs. 64 for UD), due largely to the disparity in rebounding. UD caught 34 shots that missed, with senior guard Nick Netsch pacing the team at seven. Principia nabbed only 23.
"Defensively, the guys forced a lot of turnovers, and we got some easy buckets out of those," said Brian Stanfield, UD's head coach. "[We were] trying to put some pressure on the ball and take them out of their rhythm."
For their part, the crowd hounded Principia as much as any defender, calling for the miss on Principia free throws and giving a signature cheer for each of UD's free throws made. At every point that Principia flashed any swagger, the crowd was there to bring them back down, mockingly chanting "Dou-ble Di-gits" when the game reached 30-10. When Principia celebrated after scoring their 10th straight point to make the game 70-43, the crowd came back with "Twen-ty Se-ven," pointing to the UD lead.
"It's always a good crowd," Stanfield said. "It's a good outlet for some of the kids to come in and get a little rowdy. We certainly appreciate it."
By the end of the half, the game had been decided about as completely as a game at the half can be, as UD led by 30, 58-28.
The good news for the Panthers is that they did outscore UD for the second half. The bad news, of course, is that they did not outscore them by 30. UD looked to hold the ball and drain the clock, neither scoring a point nor allowing a score until Packard put up a quasi-dunk five minutes in to the half.
"We let up," Stanfield said. "Some of that has to do with making substitutions and guys running in and out. [Also,] I think it's hard mentally [when you play with such a big lead]."
They scored only 23 in the second half as many of the players lower down on the depth chart received playing time.
"We've been consistently playing about nine or 10 guys in a game," Stanfield said. "In a game like this one, we're fortunate to rest some other guys. We [did] stay pretty consistent throughout the first half."
Despite the slowed pace, the Crusaders continued to put together some notable plays. Both Netsch and freshman guard Noah Pettit leveled particularly fearsome blocks. Freshman forward led all Crusader scorers for the game with 19. Thanks in part to the attempts to get young players involved after the game had been decided but also as a testament to the young talent on the team, the freshman class actually accounted for more than half of the team's scoring with 44 points.
Next up for the Crusaders, Southwestern (2-2) will visit the Maher Gymnasium on Thursday, December 8th at 5:00.
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