Postgame: Bucs Best the Bisons in the Trenches

Another day, another great chapter in the ETSU-Lipscomb rivalry. (Although how much of a rivalry it is when one team has won 26 of 34 meetings is up for debate.)

That might have been the ugliest basketball game I've ever seen (except for every NBA game since Jordan retired). It was pure, unadulterated trench warfare. While the Brown-Hodzic match-up didn't fully materialize as Zeke got into foul trouble with 15 minutes left, the big gents down the bench came in and played great under their own basket. While the Tubbs injury left Slater all kinds of room to work (13 of his 27 points came in the last 12 minutes), the defense held.

The big story of the night, though, was Tubbs' 360 jam. It was the #1 play of the night on SportsCenter. Holy bajeebus, what a beauty. Easily the front-runner for play of the year. He had to get it just right or he would have busted his head on the rim. Hopefully he recovers quickly, but I have serious doubts about him playing again this week after he left the Dome on crutches.

It's time for Green Stat/Red Stat.

.281 - Lipscomb's offensive rebound percentage. This is a sign of great work from the post players to hold back the Bisons and bring that opposing ORB% down (typically, ETSU gives up offensive boards at a .332 clip). It's good that they limited them to that many boards, because...
10 - Lipscomb second chance points, on 9 offensive rebounds. That simply can't happen. More offensive boards and we're talking about how far into triple digits Belmont will go when they come to the Dome tomorrow.

.250 - Jordan Burgason's shooting percentage. The perimeter players really gave him a hard time, and he put up a paltry seven points in a half-hour of play. He's normally a very dangerous player on the outside for Lipscomb but we made him a non-factor for most of this game.
.154 - ETSU's three point field goal percentage. Do I even need to say anything? That number hurts just to look at.

14 - Lukas Poderis' minutes on the floor. It's good to see Bartow reaching down the bench. This is a big part of why we brought in Wilkinson, but he still only played eight minutes. Gotta wonder when he'll get back into the rotation, or if he'll get back in at all come tournament time (I think they'll need him, especially when the big front court guys like Zeke and Mike get in foul trouble). But I digress; Poderis really showed himself to be a valuable asset even though he has seen significantly less floor time than last year.
3859 - Attendance. Frankly, I was disappointed at the turnout. I think we should have 4500+ for a team like Lipscomb. When one takes into account, though, that this was some 600 spectators above our average attendance, it's not as bad as it might first appear.


Meanwhile, the Lady Bucs systematically dismantled the Lady Bisons this afternoon. Six players in double figures and 51 total rebounds (but nobody with more than 6). There's not really much else to say, unless you want to talk about the countless technical issues that plagued the presentation of the game. After being right in the middle of it, I sure don't.