GC over Daniel Boone (TN) 77-71

[sharkfan83]

GC came out sluggish just like they did against Hampton and DB hit alot of 3 pt buckets (same as Hampton did) and took the early lead. The Devils struggled to defend against back door cuts early which led to easy uncontested buckets to go along with all their 3 pt buckets. GC finally closed the gap and took the lead with some sharp shooting from the freshman Dean and some acrobatic moves from McClung. GC led 39-29 at halftime after trailing by as many as 9-10 pts in the first half.

GC led by as many as 11 or 12 but had their lead cut to 3 pts in the 4th. Ervin and Collier both got into foul trouble and had to battle the refs all night. Pretty poor officiating which is status quo when you go across the line to play anyone in TN....some of the calls were bogus. Fouls were 9-3 I think at one point in the 4th....and things only got worse when McClung crammed two dunks home. Refs then started watching him like crazy then started picking at him over his jersey coming untucked slightly in the back and made him leave the game for a short period of time. Then he got stuck with a Technical after blocking a shot and grinning about it. Ended up not making a difference as he came back in and got hacked and sank his FTs down the stretch to ice the game.

Good win for the Devils.....the young guys got a taste of what's its like having to deal with a 2-3 zone from a pretty talented Boone team. They need to be up against adversity early and often and they were tonight. Clean up the defense and rebounding and GC will be fine. The guys off the bench play much better D than the starters.

McClung finished with 35 pts, Dean had 20 (six 3 pt buckets from DEEP), and Ervin had 16 (missed 4-5 FTs though which he usually doesn't miss for 4-5 games combined... not a good night for Ervin)

 

[SWVA-basketball-jones]

Yeah ... that's the way it is with the refs going to tn. Just except it when you agree to go over there. Boone has good size too. I am thinking a 6,8 or 6,7 guy and a 6,5 guy. One of the hardest things about a va team going to tn is that the tn team has played a lot of games and the va teams just starting the season.

 

[sharkfan83]

They did have 2-3 guys with size....and the two guards that kept the game close could light the net up. Boone was a very good team no doubt. GC came out flat on D and settled for trying to match them on their made 3 pt buckets. If the Devils had just penetrated the zone and worked for better shots I think GC would have pulled away early on and maybe extended the lead out of reach by the 4th. Hats off to Boone, those guys came to play and wasn't having any part of GC running them out of their gym.

 

[blackknight_pride]

McClung has 95 through the first 3 games...wow.
He's averaging 31.6 ppg, not to mention like 3 dunks per game.
That kid is no joke.

 

[sharkfan83]

He was definitely the driving force for GC last night.....Ervin scored 16 but was way off his game. (Probably missed half his FTs and he normally shoots like 90%). McClung and Dean had to pick up the slack....and they definitely did. Mac eat up Boones 2-3 zone with his dribble penetration and popping the mid range jumper over the big guys down low. When they tried to play up on him and stop his jumper he weaved through traffic and got to the rim. And Dean was sinking shots from near half court. I think he was 6 of 7 or maybe 6 of 8 from downtown. That kinda threw a kink in Boones plans and when they went back to a man to man defense GC started to put together some scoring runs so they quickly went back to 2-3 zone. They really had no answer....GC just stopped themselves several times.