With the win, the Spartans improve to 9-6 overall
and 2-0 in SoCon play, while the Paladins saw their six-game winning streak
come to an end, falling to 13-2 overall and 1-1 in league action. It was UNCG’s
third-straight win over the Paladins, as the Spartans claimed wins of 79-68 (In
Greensboro) and 89-87 (In Greenville). The Spartans improved to 6-0 at the
First Horizon Coliseum this season and moved to a 26-21 lead in the all-time
series between the two SoCon rivals. The win ties the Spartans atop the league
standings with both Samford (11-3, 2-0 SoCon) and Mercer (9-6, 2-0), who both won
road league tilts earlier in the day.
For Furman, which has won 211 games since the
start of the 2015-16 season, Saturday evening’s 17-point loss to the Spartans marked
its 100th overall defeat in that span. It was UNCG’s 207th win over that same
span, including its league-standard 118th SoCon win over the past nine years.
Giles powered a UNCG offense that shot the ball at a 57.4% (31-of-54) clip for the game, which included a 52.2% effort from three-point range (12-of-23), as well as outscoring the Paladins 36-27 from beyond the arc—a stat that Furman rarely if ever loses in a game. The Paladins have given up 80 or more points this season on two occasions this season, with both of those resulting in losses. The 84 points scored by UNCG were a season-high against an NCAA Division I foe.
Individually for Giles, he showed why he is one
of the SoCon’s top players and newcomers, as he finished the connecting on
10-of-13 shots from the field, including making 5-of-6 from three-point range.
He also added five rebounds, dished out four assists and recorded a steal.
Giles was joined in double figures by fellow
transfer portal addition Ronald Polite III, who contributed 18 points on 5-of-9
shooting from the field and 3-for-4 shooting from long range. In addition, Polite
III knocked down 5-of-7 shots from the charity stripe. All told, Giles and
Polite combined to go 8-of-10 from three-point range, while the rest of the
team connected on 4-for-13 from long range.
For a second-straight season, Joryiam Saizonou
came off the bench to provide the Spartans with 11 points, as he posted a
season-high 13 points against Furman last season in UNCG’s early-January 11-point
win over the Paladins at the First Horizon Coliseum.
The Paladins had just one player reach double
figures in the contest, as senior guard PJay Smith Jr. notched his sixth 20-plus
scoring performance of the season, as well as his 10th double-figure scoring
outing in 13 games so far this season, finishing with 24 points. In the loss,
Smith Jr. connected 8-of-16 shots from the field and went 4-for-11 from
three-point land. He made all four of his free throws and contributed a rebound
and an assist.
While for much of the night it seemed like the
Spartans couldn’t miss open looks, and even made some contested ones, the
Paladins struggled to find their shooting rhythm from any range, as the
Paladins finished the contest connecting on just 39.3% (22-of-56) from the
field for the game, while making only 25.7% (9-of-35) from three-point range.
The Paladins finished the evening a solid 77.8% (14-of-18) from the charity stripe.
While UNCG had the major advantage in shooting
accuracy from both two-point and three-point range, other categories in the
game, somewhat surprisingly, were much closer. The Spartans held advantages in
points from turnovers (16-9), points in the paint (26-22), second-chance points
(14-12), fast-break points (6-3), and total assists (12-11). Furman had a narrow edge in bench points
(18-17), while both teams were deadlocked, 30-30, on the backboards.
How It Happened:
For much of the season, Furman has had answers
in games when it seemingly shouldn’t have, however, on Saturday evening when it
needed answers, it couldn’t find the ammo to load its guns effectively. In the
first half, Furman got the shots it wanted, however, the problem was when they
fired them, they were blanks.
The second half saw UNCG step up its defensive
grit and effort, however, even at that, the Paladins trimmed it to eight points
on two but failed on four attempts to cut into that deficit even further,
however. The Paladins came away only with empty possessions with chances to cut
into that UNCG lead and make things interesting. Mike Jones’ teams have a knack
for holding their own in those moments, never letting the hard-charging foe faced
with a deficit get completely back into the game, and in those moments, UNCG’s
defensive acumen was top-notch.
In the opening few minutes, it appeared that
both PJay Smith Jr and Kenyon Giles were playing with each other one-on-one, as
Smith scored Furman’s first eight, while Giles would tally UNCG’s first four.
From there, others would settle into the scoring for the Spartans, while
Furman, which has found scoring from a lot of different places this season, couldn’t
find that scoring outside of Smith all evening.
In fact, Furman, which came into the game with
11 different double-figure scorers this season, had only one in a game for the
first time season, and finished a game with only one. Even in its loss at
Kansas earlier this season, both Eddrin Bronson (14 pts) and Garrett Hien (12
pts) both scratched out double-figure scoring performances. In stark contrast to its second SoCon game,
the Paladins had six players finish in double figures in their 29-point road-opening
win at Western Carolina.
The Paladins were leading 9-7 after a Garrett
Hien made foul shot before the Spartans would commence a 10-0 run to completely
take control of the game, with the scoring run beginning with a pair of Malik
Henry foul shots and end with a Giles three-pointer at the 13:09 mark of the
opening frame to prompt a Bob Richey timeout.
The Spartans would eventually head into the
halftime locker room with a 43-32, marking the third time the Paladins had
trailed by 11 this season. The Paladins trailed games to both Kansas and Florida
Gulf-Coast by 11 points at the half, going 1-1 in those games. This game would
trend towards the Kansas game rather than the FGCU contest.
Early in the second half, the Paladins sliced
the UNCG lead to eight after Hien converted a layup in the paint, however,
while the Spartans’ response was not immediate, it was a swift and decisive and
just over a minute later a Giles layup in the paint extended the UNCG lead back
to double digits, at 49-39, at the 15:39 mark. From there, the Spartans would
fatten their lead to 19 points over roughly the next three minutes, with a Saizonou
layup in the paint extending the UNCG lead to 19, at 61-42, with 12:41 remaining
in the game.
The Paladins would never get closer than 12 points
the rest of the way, with the Spartans extending their lead to as many as 21
points on two occasions, with the latest of those coming following a Roland
Polite III three-pointer with 4:16 remaining, which gave the Blue and Gold a
78-57 lead.
Quotable: “They were
more aggressive to the paint than we were and they put the ball down harder on
the deck than we did and they were aggressive finishing at the rim than we were
and like I said usually this game goes to the aggressor and a lot of times when
you’re not aggressive you play on your heels a bit and all the sudden you get
those shots and you feel like they have to go down and they don’t.”—Furman
head coach Bob Richey on Saturday’s loss to UNCG
Up Next: Furman will be
on the road for the third-straight game to open SoCon play, taking on The
Citadel (5-8, 0-2 SoCon), with tip-off set for 7 p.m. EST at McAlister Field
House. UNCG returns to action on
Thursday, Jan. 9, taking on Chattanooga (9-6, 1-1 SoCon) at McKenzie Arena in a
key league tilt, which will be televised by CBS Sports Network. Tip-off for that
contest is set for 5 p.m. EST.
No comments:
Post a Comment