Saturday, January 22, 2005

What a night at Anderson

Full House, big win. It was a great night to be a Falcon fan at Anderson Arena tonight.

It didn't start out that way. The first half was an absolute travesty--one of the worst halves of basketball we have played recently. We shot 30% from the field, 28.6% from 3, and 38% from the line. God knows how many TOs we had. For a few minutes, UT got so many layups it looked like pre-game warm up drills. It was 34-17 at the half...we were getting doubled up on our floor.

The second half was a different story--in fact, it was a mirror image of our football game, so turnabout is fair play. In 1:14, we had cut the lead from 17-10. With 13:33 left in the game, we finally had the lead, on the backside of a 21-3 run. Six minutes and three points for the Rockets. There was 11:33 left before UT got its fifth point of the half.

We led by 8 with 4:26 left, and it really should be over at that point. But, they scored the next 8, and tied it at 65-65.

That kicked in one amazing 1:24 of basketball. Check this action...with no timeouts...just up one side of the floor and down the other.

1:24 Floyd FT gives BG 1 point lead.
1:10 Triplett nails jumper, UT up 1.
:52 Almanson nails jumper, BG up 1
:37 Triplett answers, UT up 1
:27 Fitch LU from Floyd, BG leads by 1.

All that in one minute, real time. No timeouts, just back and forth up the floor. Just a fantastic run of hoops. UT finally calls a timeout, and holds for the last clock. Triplett gets the ball, guarded by Reimold. Tries everything, can't get open, eventually double teamed with about 2 seconds left. Kicks it to Ingram in the corner, and he gets a decent look (but not uncontested), and the shot hits back iron and doesn't go down, and its pandemonium in the Arena.

A classic.

Check these 2nd Half stats out.

BG FG% 76%
BG 3FG 75%
BG FT 69%
BG scoring 53 points. That's how we scored against IPFW.

We had some poor stats. 19 fouls for UT, 25 for BG. 12 TOs for UT, 24 for BG. UT with 13 steals, and 5 for BG. The best thing for us was to get on the odd point, because if we play OT, we're in trouble. Soler fouled out. Fitch, Almanson, Wright and Floyd all had 4 at the end. It would have been tough.

Reimold finished with 17, after shooting 1-11 in the first half. Shooters keep shooting, and he finished 6-19. Floyd had 13, including a key 5 point run in the second half. Fitch had 12 and Almanson 10. Both Fitch and Almanson had 8 boards. Triplett is a punk--lost his cool on a blocking call where the call was the same one the refs had made all night, and he had trouble keeping track of how many fouls he had. Still, he drained those two jumpers in the last minute, and we were all over him. He finished with 26.

A big win, and one we needed badly. Our next two games are on the road, and we couldn't head off with a three-game losing streak. We're 11-4 and 5-2. Better than anyone would have expected, but its a day to day thing. We can win at CMU Wednesday, but it will be tough.

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