Jan. 10, 2011

Final Stats

ELIZABETH CITY, NC - The Fayetteville State Broncos had their most trouble with the undefended shots.

Fayetteville State shot just 44 percent from the foul line, misfiring on their last five foul shot attempts, and Elizabeth City State's Kenny White made the Broncos pay, sinking FSU when he buried a jump shot with 11 seconds left to give the Vikings the lead in a 60-58 CIAA thriller at the RL Vaughn Center on Monday night.

The Broncos (5-6, 1-2) did just about everything right - they held the Vikings (8-3, 2-1) to 35.8 percent shooting, they outrebounded the Vikings 36-32 and hit 6 of 11 3-pointers.

But Fayetteville State made just 12 of 27 free throws and turned the ball over 26 times. And after another brilliant find by Andre Best (So., Raleigh, NC) to Saturday's hero John Herrington (Jr., Jacksonville, NC) to give the Broncos a tenuous 58-57 lead with 1:12 to go, everything fell apart.

For a moment, though, FSU appeared poised to pull off a big upset on the road. Fayetteville State forced two turnovers in a span of 12 seconds in the final minute, regaining possession of the ball. But the Broncos missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 39 seconds remaining and then misfired on two free throw attempts with 23 seconds left.

Elizabeth City State corralled the rebound and called a timeout with 18 seconds to go, setting up White's winner. Fayetteville State then turned the ball over yet again, and Trent Bivens, who had earlier made two foul shots with 1:25 left to give the Vikings a 57-56 lead, hit one of two foul shots for the final score.

The Broncos were brilliant in the first half - despite missing seven of their first 11 foul shot attempts. Fayetteville State shot nearly 50 percent in the opening period and held the Vikings under 30 percent shooting for much of the half. Elizabeth City State stayed in the game because of its strong effort from the foul line, though, hitting 11 of 16 in the first half to trail just 34-28 at the break.

The game stayed within four points for the last 15 minutes of the game, with the teams trading the lead a couple of times. Devin Thompson (Fr., Fayetteville, NC) gave the Broncos a big lift throughout the game, hitting two big 3-pointers. Thompson, who finished with a season-high nine points, made two foul shots ahead of Tim Plummer (Jr., Apex, NC) making one of two to give FSU a 56-53 lead with 4:01 remaining.

But the victory was not meant to be.

Rondy Tucker led all players with 16 points to go with a team-high seven rebounds to pace ECSU. Paul Goldsmith and Deon Rice added 11 points apiece while Bivens added 10. White had just two points - the most important two points of the game.

Herrington just missed his third straight double-double after finishing with nine points and a game-high nine rebounds. Jarmel Baxter had nine points to join Thompson while Plummer added eight points.

Fayetteville State next plays Lincoln (PA) at home in Felton J. Capel Arena at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday.