The best defense we have played this season
Game Summary:
The question you wanted to answer was, “Are we ready to play Purdue?”
The first half was outstanding, as good a half as we have played. Our defense was smothering, forcing 13 turnovers, including 6 steals. You had to look hard to see evidence of the Tribe’s Princeton offense, we shut it down. They had to hit 3PT shots to be competitive, they were 3-14 at the half. Marcus Hill led us with 10, but the entire team played well. We led by 19 at the half.
As is the case with college basketball players, we relaxed on that big lead and W&M came back hard. They slowly but surely crept back into the game, and at the 5:29 mark had cut the lead to 7, at 52-59. From there we went on a 22-6 run to close it out. Taylor, Middlebrooks, and Hill got steals and Styles, who had been quiet to that point, hit a jumper and two 3PT shots. The final was a 23-point win, 84-61.
Are we ready for Purdue? I think we got as much benefit as we could from these five games. Now we’ll find out if it will translate to a higher level of competition.
Overall Takeaways:
- We are consistently sharing the ball well – 15 assists on 31 made baskets (48%) is outstanding
- Our early season free throw shooting woes seem to be behind us
- After shooting 21% from 3PT last game, we got it back up into the 30% range.
- 13 steals is a season high – 8 different players had steals
- We have consistently guarded the 3PT line well, we held them to 22.6%
- We won the rebounding battle 40-38 over a good rebounding team
Individual Highlights
- Injury Update – Diouf is still sore, but nothing serious
- Ain’t no stat line like a Ben Middlebrooks stat line – 11 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, and 4 blocks
- Scoring – 19 points – Marcus Hill was an efficient 7-13 and hit his first 3PT shot as a Wolfpacker
- Rebounding – Huntley-Hatfield had his Wolfpack career high with 9
- Dennis Parker, Jr. played 11 solid minutes, 5 points, 5 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block, 1 assist
- KJ Keatts hit his first career basket!