Dr. Pepper Classic Semifinals
by Bill Kintner
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – Four tough Mid-major teams are in Chattanooga to compete in this annual two day tournament. This year the Chattanooga Mocs are hosting Wright State, Murray State and Belmont. A lot of in-season tournaments are nothing more than an opportunity to buy a trophy for the home team, but not this one. The Mocs are going to have to really fight to win this year’s tournament.
Game One: Wright State slides by Belmont in Overtime
Close games are nothing unusual for this year’s Wright State Raiders. They’ve had a one-point win over Butler, a one-point win over Miami, a four-point win over Cal State Fullerton and tonight an overtime win over Belmont, 78-74.
With 20 seconds left in regulation play Wright State (7-3) led 60-58. The more experienced Belmont called time out to set up a final play with 13 seconds left.
Belmont’s Matthew Dotson came from behind a screen to shoot a 3-pointer that missed, but teammate Jordan Campbell was in position under the basket to get the rebound and put it back in to tie the game 60-60.
The Raiders called timeout to set up a final play with 2.3 seconds left, but nothing came of it as Scottie Wilson heaved up a desperation shot from 25 feet that missed as time ran out.
In overtime, the Raiders scored first when Wilson hit a jumper to make it 62-60. After a bunch of missed free throws by both teams the score was tied 63-63 at the 2:57 mark.
Just 30 seconds later Wilson slammed home a dunk to give the Raiders the lead at 65-63, a lead they would hold until the end of overtime.
Two free throws by Wright State’s Vaughn Duggins pushed the lead to eight points at 71-63, but Belmont (7-6) still had plenty of fight in them.
With 24 seconds left Justin Hare hit a 3-pointer to get the lead back down to two points at 73-71. But Duggins and Wilson each hit two foul shots to get the lead back to six. A layup by Campbell just before the buzzer sounded got the score back down to four points at 78-74.
“We played it hard, we had a good game plan and we won,” explained Wright State’s Tood Brown. “People hit their shots and they stepped up.”
Brown who led all scorers with 26 points, thought that having to go the extra five minutes was tough on the Raiders and he planned to head to his hotel room to rest.
“I wish we had won it in regulation. Mentally I am glad we won, but for our bodies the extra five minutes takes a lot out of us.”
The difference in this game: according to Belmont’s coach Rick Byrd, the Raiders got too many second chances under their basket.
“They got too many second chance points,” said Byrd. “It is hard to name a single play, they just got too high a percentage of their missed shots.”
Led by Wilson’s 17 rebounds, Wright State out-rebounded Belmont 45-36 which led to 12 second chance points.
Wright State coach Brad Brownell couldn’t really put his finger on a single thing that made the difference in this game. He did point out that when they geared their defense to guard Duggins it opened up some other opportunities.
“They really keyed in on Vaughn initially,” said Brownell. “When they pressed us it opened the court up and Vaughn made some plays both passing and shooting.”
Wright State shot a respectable 49.1 percent (26-53) compared to 39.7 percent (25-63) for the Bruins.
Belmont’s 3-point shooting kept them in the game. The Bruins 34.4 percent (11-32) compared to just 25 percent (3-12) for the Raiders.
Byrd thought the Raiders were a very good team and that concerned him coming into this game, but was proud his team hung with Wright State most of the game.
“If we are good enough to play Wright State even in regulation play it must mean we are pretty good.”
Notes
- Wright State leads the all-time series 2-1.
- Belmont’s coach Rick Byrd is one of just 17 active NCAA head coaches with 500 or more career victories. Byrd stands at 523 victories.
- Belmont is 4-13 all-time against the Horizon League teams.
- Wright State had about 100 or so noisy fans in attendance.
- Belmont had several hundred fans at the game.
Game two: Chattanooga whips Murray State
Winning is not unusual territory for Chattanooga, since they have a better than .800 winning percentage over the years in the annual Dr. Pepper Classic. But winning by 24 points is a little unusual as the Mocs beat up on Murray State 74-50.
To understand the total destruction that took place here in the second game of the night, it would be appropriate to whip out some stats.
Chattanooga (8-4) held the Racers to just 5.9 percent – that is not a typo – from three-point land. Another coach once said he could stand at half court and drop kick in one in 17 attempts. (Well, he actually said 18 attempts, but close enough.)
Murray State (5-5) took a whopping 60 shots and made just 18 of them for a paltry 30 percent from the field, while the Mocs were very efficient shooting 50 percent (22-44) from the field including 47.7 from beyond the 3-pointline (9-19).
Chattanooga out-scored the Racers 40-23 in the first half and 34-27 in the second half.
The only drama in the game happened twice, and both times it was only a slight drama. In the first half, when the Mocs were up by 17 points with 10:52 left, Murray State went on a little run fueled by hitting three layups and five foul shots to get the game to within nine points at 26-17 at the 6:33 mark. A couple of foul shots by Kenyon Sheard stopped the bleeding and Mocs went back to dismantling the Racers.
In the second half, the Racers went on a 9-0 run to cut the Mocs’ lead from 17 points to eight points at 40-32. Chattanooga put that to an end with an 11-4 run over about six minutes to get the score back to 51-36 with 12:16 left to play.
Chattanooga coach John Shulman didn’t like the little runs too much, but was thankful his bench came in and played well.
“You give up a 17-point lead and how comfortable do you feel? Our bench carried us and pulled it out for us,” said Shulman. “I went with them (bench) and now they feel good about themselves.”
Murray State coach Billy Kennedy thought the Mocs’ defense had a lot to do with his team’s poor shooting, along with just missing shots they normally make.
“Their defense was very good and we just missed shots,” explained Kennedy. “They were more physical and they played with a lot of confidence.
Kevin Goffney came off the bench for Chattanooga to lead all scorers with 16 points.
Notes
- Murray State leads the all-time series 4-2.
- The Mocs are 29-6 all-time in the Dr. Pepper Classic.
- Shulman was joking around during his post game comments when he said he was trying to find a way to keep Wright State coach Brad Brownell’s team out of the tournament but couldn’t find another team to play. He meant that as a tribute to how good the Raiders are this year.
- Murray State plays Belmont at 6 P.M. on Sunday.
- Wright State plays host Chattanooga at 8 P.M. on Sunday.
