David Hodge 12/17/11
LAKELAND,
FL – Behind career games from Mark Anthony Buright and Greg Alston, as
well as Antonio Reddic's fourth double-double of the season, the Chowan
University Men's Basketball team won a thrilling 86-81 overtime decision
at Florida Southern College on Saturday. Chowan moves to 5-5 on the
season while FSC falls to 6-3.Florida Southern had won six of their last seven games, and was a perfect 5-0 at home this season.
Chowan out-scored the Mocs 14-9 in the overtime period behind six points from Buright and five from Reddic. The Hawks made six free throws in OT to seal the victory.
Buright scored a career-high 13 points on 3-4 shooting. He also went 7-11 from the charity stripe. “Mark stepped up big tonight, especially with a couple guys fouling out,” said Head Coach Dan DeRose. “The ball had to be in his hands late, and he had to be ready to step up and he did. He has a lot of confidence in his game, which is huge for a freshman. He got the game ball tonight; I am really proud of him.”
Alston scored a career-high 10 points, going 5-5 from the free throw line. Reddic led the Hawks with 26 points and 13 rebounds. He shot 10-18 from the floor and had four steals. Reddic entered tonight's action as the NCAA Division II leader in steals per game (6.1).
Neither team led by more than four points over the final eight minutes of regulation of the back-and-forth game. FSC's Kevin Capers gave the Mocs a 70-69 lead with two free throws at the 1:39 mark in regulation. Buright then followed with a layup and foul shot to put the Hawks up by two with 16 ticks on the clock. Dominic Lane muscled in a layup, though, with just four seconds remaining to send the game into overtime.
Florida Southern opened up sizeable leads during the first half, but Chowan never let the game get out of hand. After the Mocs scored five points in 27 seconds to take a 24-18 lead, the Hawks answered right back with a 5-0 run of their own to close the gap to one point with 4:18 left in the first half. A Seth Evans layup gave FSC their biggest lead of the game, 34-25 with 1:31 on the first half clock. The Mocs would take a 34-27 lead into halftime.
“We gave up too many second chance points in the first half,” said DeRose. “We executed much better in second half. Rickey Lamb came in and played some good minutes in the second half, which was big for us. The key, though, was that we didn't turn the ball over in the second half.”
Lamb finished with five points, four rebounds, and two blocks – all of which came in the second half. Chowan committed just nine turnovers in the second half and overtime combined.
Florida Southern maintained an eight point lead, 53-45, at the 11 minute mark of the second half, but Chowan responded with a 10-2 run over the next 3:42 to pull even at 55. Kyree Bethel drained one of two three-pointers with 4:53 remaining to give Chowan a 65-61 lead. Bethel scored a career-high nine points in the game.
Not surprisingly, the teams were very even statistically. Each squad grabbed 45 rebounds and committed 21 turnovers. Chowan drained seven three-pointers for the game, while FSC made only four. The Hawks' bench out-scored FSC's reserves 41-23.
Quinton McDuffie scored 12 points and grabbed eight rebounds for Chowan. Kevin Capers led FSC with 22 points, including shooting 12-15 from the free throw line. Seth Evans added 17 and drained a trio of three-pointers.
Chowan will return to action on Monday, December 19th, when they travel to the University of Tampa for a 2:00 tip-off.