Takais Brown vs. Wake (AP: Rick Havner. Click to enlarge)
Wow. Winning any game on the road has been tough sledding the past several years. Winning a game on Tobacco Road...well that's a certain loss...right?
Not this time. This time the Dawgs dug deep and beat Wake Forest on the road 87-86. Chip Towers of the AJC notes this was Felton's fifth road win in 30 tries, and it was a HUGE win indeed.
Five Dawgs went into double figures and were led by Mike Mercer who scored 18 after early foul trouble. Notes from the Box Score:
-- Dawgs shot 53% from the field and 53% from the 3 point line. We can beat anyone when we shoot that well.
-- The team shot 41% from the free throw line. Ouch.
-- The team had twice as many turnovers as assists.
-- 7 blocks and 13 steals is impressive.
-- We out rebounded Wake 38-34
-- Gaines had 12 points, 9 rebounds, 5 steals and 3 assists (also 6 turnovers, but who's counting)
-- Takais Brown had 10 points, 6 rebounds and 2 blocks in 23 minutes.
Just being able to spread our fouls around among our big men while rotating bodies is a tremendous advantage over previous seasons. If we can improve our foul shooting and improve our ball movement, watch out.
This is exactly the type of win the Dawgs desperately needed.
PWD
5 comments:
Good analysis. When the 3s are falling, we'll be no fun for anyone to play. When they're not, we probably won't be pretty against quality opposition, but maybe steals, blocks and a few offensive rebounds will enable us to scratch out some wins.
I'll take winning ugly over all the losing we've had lately. This is a team that got killed by Air Force, so this isn't the beginning of the end of our struggles, but it may be the end of the begining.
Air Force killed them up high in the Colorado air. That endurance factor, for a young teamon the road against a well coached opponent (Air Force is led by former Denver Nuggets coach Jeff Bdzelik-sp?-, and are probably going dancing this March), was far too much for Wake.
We beat them in their house. Not as impressive as some would like, but at the end of the year, it still goes into the books as a W. Now if they can find a way to split Clemson, Georgia Tech, Wisconsin, and Gonzaga 2-2, the NCAA Tournament will be a legitimate goal for this team.
I would like to see UF lose by 100 against OSU. I don't want their team plane to go down or anything like that but I would enjoy something pretty bad - like a severe case of near-death food poisoning.
And yes - I'm aware my post has nothing to do with the blog topic. I'm just ready to see Florida get murdered.
I didn't hear anything about the crowd....didn't they show the ACC Champ game on the jumbotron in their arena prior to the Basketball game? Shouldn't this win on the road be an even better road win due to the circumstances?
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