BUIES
CREEK,
N.C. – Travis Strong scored 10 of his 16 points in the last
3:05 to lead East Tennessee State to a 74-69 comeback win over
visiting Campbell Thursday night at Memorial Center.
The
Camels led by 11 with 11:28 remaining before the Bucs rallied for
their third-straight win.
The lead changed five times in the last 6:24 of the contest before
ETSU secured its sixth home win against no losses this
year.
Strong
broke a 64-all tie with a 22-foot triple from the top of the key
with 3:05 to go, added another trey, then hit 4-of-4 free throws in
the final 25.5 seconds to seal ETSU's fifth-straight win over the
Camels since the Bucs joined the Atlantic Sun Conference in
2005-06.
Strong
finished with 16 points, 13 in the second half, on 4-of-6 threes
and 4-of-4 from the line.
A-Sun pre-season player of the year Courtney Pigram led ETSU with
23 points, while Mike Smith added 10 off the bench. Kevin Riggs added eight points and
nine rebounds, including eight on the offensive
end.
ETSU
(8-7, 2-0) had 19 offensive rebounds that the Bucs converted into
20 second-chance points.
ETSU finished with a 41-31 edge on the glass over the Camels, who
entered the game leading the A-Sun in rebounding
margin.
Jonathan
Rodriguez led Campbell (5-9, 1-2) with a game-high 25 points,
including 8-of-9 from the line, and eight rebounds. Kyle Vejraska chipped in 16, Jake Wohlfeil 15 (on 5-of-7 triples)
and Reggie Bishop 11.
I
was really pleased with our effort early in the ball game and
executed the game plan well, but the storyline of this game was our
inability to get the ball off the glass," said Campbell head coach
Robbie Laing. "They got two
and three opportunities. If
we're going to win on the road, we've got to rebound better than we
did tonight."
The
Camels led 51-40 with 11:28 to go before ETSU went on a 20-7
run. Pigram had 10 points
in the stretch, including a pair of threes. Strong's triple from the left corner
knotted the game at 58-58 with 7:33 remaining; then Smith hit a
pair of foul shots with 6:24 left to give the Bucs their first lead
of the game (60-58).
"Campbell
was a much different team than a year ago. We knew it was going to be a very
tough game, and I feel fortunate that we won," said ETSU head coach
Murry Bartow.
For the seventh time in the
past eight games, Campbell played a team down to the wire. During that stretch, seven of
those contests have been decided by two possession margins (six
points) or less contests in the last 30 seconds of regulation. The lone exception was
Saturday's 83-75 win over Belmont.
ETSU
shot 48 percent (14-29) for the second half to rally from a 37-30
deficit at the break against a team the Bucs defeated by 30 at home
last year. Campbell,
meanwhile, hit only 39 percent (10-26) of its shots in the final
period, and 43 percent (22-51) for the
game.
The
Camels made 9-of-18 threes (.500) for the game, but were limited to
3-of-6 from long distance in the second half. CU made 16-of-20 (.800) from the line,
while ETSU hit 16-of-19, including 11-of-11 in the final
period.
Campbell
jumped
to a 13-4 lead in the first 3:55 as Rodriguez, Bishop and Wohlfeil
connected from 3-point range. ETSU pulled within 28-26 on Greg
Hamlin's bucket in the paint, but the Camels responded with a 9-0
run to move ahead 37-26 on Rodriguez' leaner in the lane with 1:55
to go in the period.
Rodriguez
had 14 points and five rebounds in the first half and Wohlfeil
connected on 3-of-3 from long distance as the Camels led 37-30 at
the break. Campbell shot
6-of-12 from 3-point territory and 48 percent overall in the
opening half.
ETSU
made just 31 percent of its shots in the opening period and was led
by Pigram's 11 points.
Campbell travels to USC Upstate on
Saturday (4:00 p.m.) for the first-ever men's basketball meeting
between the schools. The Spartans (3-13, 1-1) are coming
off a 73-59 win Thursday over Gardner-Webb.
