4 December, 2006
by Elliot Smilowitz
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1st |
2nd |
Final |
| Longwood (3-6) |
19 |
30 |
49 |
| American (6-2) |
35 |
25 |
57 |
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The American Eagles opened up an 18-point lead before withstanding a furious Longwood rally to defeat the Lancers 60-49. Brayden Billbe and Andre Ingram led the Eagles with 13 points each.
American came out firing, opening an early 15-2 lead. The Eagles got 5 points from Ingram and 4 each from Linas Lekavicius and Derrick Mercer in that span. American widened the lead to 16 at halftime, and took it to 18 early in the second half on a Mercer free throw. However, Longwood chipped away, getting back within single digits when a Husein Pistoljevic three-pointer made the score 50-43. The Lancers would come as close as 5, but the Longwood offense stalled and the Eagled led by at least 8 for the entire final three minutes.
Maurice Sumter had a game-high 15 points for Longwood, and Kirk Williams added 10. Mercer had another good game, notching 12 points and 5 assists. These two teams meet up again Dec. 30 at Longwood.
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| Keys to the Game |
| Key sequence |
With 15:15 to go in the first half, Longwood was down 8-2 but had the ball and a chance to cut their deficit. Clayton Morgan missed a lay-up, leading to a Lekavicius jumper. The next time down the court, Brian Gilmore stripped Morgan, and Ingram hit a transition three to open the game to 13-2.
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| Key sign it was over |
After a second-half comeback, Longwood found itself down 8 with the ball and 2:17 left. Morgan missed a jumper, the Eagles rebounded, and Billbe layed it in. On their next possession, the Lancers turned the ball over, and were forced to foul Mercer, who hit 1 of 2 free throws. American’s 11-point lead with 1:30 left was too much.
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| Key performance |
Billbe scored 13 points, grabbed 6 rebounds and harassed Morgan into 1-of-8 shooting from the floor.
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| Key statistic |
The Eagles took a big first-half lead on the strength of 16-for-26 field goal shooting.
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| Notes |
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After not taking a foul shot the entire first half, American was just 6-for-14 from the line in the second half. The Eagles’ failure to convert on free throws was one of the reasons Longwood climbed back into the game.
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Longwood outrebounded American 43-33. Lamar Barrett grabbed 14 rebounds, and Morgan added 9. Billbe and Ingram had 6 boards each to lead the Eagles.
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American had more assists than turnovers for the fourth time this season. The Eagles had 16 assists and 14 turnovers.
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The Eagle bench scored just 10 points, with Garrison Carr scoring 4 of them. Longwood’s bench scored 8.
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American doesn’t host another game until St. Francis comes to town Jan. 2. They have five road games in the coming month.
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December 6th, 2006 at 12:46 pm
Monday night’s game was the FOURTH time this season AU has had more assists than turnovers as a team. In fact, AU has a 1-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio (109 assists/110 turnovers) for the season – tied with Navy for the best in the Patriot League.
December 7th, 2006 at 11:52 am
Thanks for catching that mistake. I even went through all the previous box scores to count how many times American had more assists than turnovers. For some reason “fourth” must have turned into “first” in my head as I typed it up. Mea culpa.