NASHVILLE, TENN. – Riding its first three-game win streak in Atlantic
Sun Conference play in nearly eight years, Campbell (6-8, 3-2)
travels to Belmont (7-6, 3-1) Saturday for a 7:15 p.m. (cst) start.
Campbell
ended a 12-game
slide away from home Thursday when Junard Hartley's 3-pointer at
the buzzer was the deciding margin in a 69-68 victory at
Lipscomb. CU built a
12-point lead in the first half; then recovered from an 8-point
deficit with 8:29 to go in the second to record its first 3-game
win stretch since Jan. 12-18, 2008.
Freshman Chris
Reynolds came off the bench to score a career-high 12 points on
4-of-5 shooting from the field and 4-of-4 from the line. Matt Gwynne added 11 for the
Camels, who won despite getting only 4 points from Jonathan
Rodriguez, the A-Sun's third-leading scorer (17.8).
Thursday's game marked
just the fifth time in 75 career games that Rodriguez failed to
score in double digits.
Thursday's 69-68 victory also was the first time that Campbell won
a game when "J-Rod" scored less than 10 points.
Belmont
has
won its last two games, including a 79-67 victory Monday over
Florida Gulf Coast, and is 4-1 at home this season. The Bruins, who
have won three-straight Atlantic Sun titles, rank third in the
country, hitting 10.6 three-point shots per game.
Prior to the current
three-game stretch, the last time the Camels won 3-straight A-Sun
games was Feb. 17-24, 2001 when CU defeated Jacksonville at home,
then both Florida Atlantic and Central Florida on the road to close
out the regular season.
Campbell leads the Atlantic Sun
Conference in team free throw percentage (.727) following
Thursday's 8-of-8 showing from the stripe. CU also tops the loop in 3-point
accuracy (.371) and is second in overall field goal percentage
(.457).
Belmont has ended CU's season in the
last three A-Sun tournaments, including quarterfinal round
decisions in 2006 and 2008 and a semifinal triumph in
2007.
While Belmont does not have
one player ranked among the top 12 scorers in the Atlantic Sun
Conference, the Bruins have three of the next four point producers
and four overall among the top 23. Seniors Alex Renfroe (13.2), Matthew
Dotson (13.2), Andy Wicke (11.5) and Shane Dansby (10.3) all chip
in double figure averages.
A 6-foot-2 guard, Renfroe also leads the league in assists (5.0)
and the team in rebounds (6.0).
