Jan. 13, 2011
Final Stats
FAYETTEVILLE, NC - Tim Plummer heard the whistle and the look on his face said it all.
His hands outstretched and looking back at the bench where head coach Alphonza Kee stood, Plummer couldn't believe he was tagged with the foul.
"Tim!" Kee bellowed. "You pushed him. You did it."
And then there were smiles all around.
It was that kind of night for the Fayetteville State Broncos, who won for the second time in their last three games and moved to .500 in CIAA play after a convincing 74-59 victory over Lincoln on Thursday night at Felton J. Capel Arena.
Ariel Robinson (Sr. Coral Springs, FL), who recently fell from his perch atop the CIAA in 3-point shooting after struggling with his shot - he still ranks second in the league -- regained his shooting touch, hitting on 5 of 8 shots from downtown to pace the balanced Broncos (6-6, 2-2) with 17 points.
"Our mindset was to have fun out there," Robinson said. "When I was a little kid, basketball was always fun. I just went back to that. Have fun, but play hard and relax a little bit."
The Broncos looked like the CIAA's highest-scoring team in this one, pressuring Lincoln (1-10, 0-4) at every opportunity and attacking the glass with equal parts precision and reckless abandon. It was an approach that worked to near perfection, even though the Broncos were without perhaps their best player in the last three games, 6-foot-7 center John Herrington, who was out while battling a case of food poisoning.
"To win without having John in there tonight, that's big for us," said Kee.
On this night, Fayetteville State didn't miss Herrington, who set career highs in rebounds in back-to-back games against Bowie State and Chowan. Jarmel Baxter (Jr., Davidson, NC) hit a couple of deep jumpers in the early going while the Broncos managed several buckets in transition, building on an early edge with a highlight-reel 19-6 run in the first half. Fayetteville State outscored the Lions, who had played barely 24 hours earlier at Johnson C. Smith, 26-12 in the final 12:25 of the first half, taking a commanding 38-20 lead into the break.
Sidney Evans (Jr., Durham, NC) added 11 points and six rebounds while Plummer (Jr., Apex, NC) chipped in 10 points to go with five rebounds for the Broncos, who had 12 different players score. Baxter added nine points, Devin Thompson (Fr, Fayetteville, NC) had seven and Andre Best (So., Raleigh, NC) led all players with seven assists.
"We've been making winning plays, we just haven't been putting it all together," said Kee, whose team's last three games were decided by a combined eight points. "I knew that soon we'd be able to combine that effort."
Lincoln tried to make a game of it early in the second half, getting five quick points from the CIAA's third-leading scorer, Denzel Mooney, to trim the deficit to 13 just 90 seconds into the second half.
But Mooney, who led all players with 35 points, was whistled for a technical foul after hitting a layup, and the Broncos used that spark to rip off a 20-9 run that included two Robinson 3s as the Broncos built their biggest lead at 60-36 with 11:20 remaining.
"Our plan to have high intensity all the time," said Robinson. "We just want to keep going after it."
The Lions managed to trim to deficit to 16 points late, but Plummer put an exclamation point - as well as another big smile while flexing his muscles as he drifted back on defense -- on the game following a thunderous dunk that brought the Broncos' faithful to their feet.
Lincoln's Dominique Stewart led all players with 11 rebounds.
