Second half rally not enough to beat Bruins

Poor first-half shooting combined with a slew of Belmont fast-break points were all contributing factors to the Buccaneers taking the wrong end of an 82-70 setback to the Bruins Monday night inside the Memorial Center.

"It was a big struggle tonight," ETSU junior Sheldon Cooley said. "We couldn't score the ball and weren't executing on offense. They picked our defense apart."

The loss, being the Bucs' second straight in the Atlantic Sun, did not start out pretty. ETSU ended the first half with a meager 16 percent shooting and only 12 points to show on the scoreboard, but their situation could have been worse. As bad as the Bucs were shooting, its defense was capable of holding Belmont to only 27 first-half points.

"If you'd told me before the game that Belmont would have 27 at the half, I would have been ecstatic," said head coach Murry Bartow. "But we only had 12. It was a pitiful first half offensively."

Despite ETSU's early shooting woes, the Bucs were only down 11-17 with five minutes left in the first half until Belmont's senior center Mick Hedgepeth scored seven straight for the Bruins to increase that deficit to 13.

Hedgepeth, who finished with a team-high 17 points, was one of five Belmont players who ended their night with double-digit points. Junior guard Ian Clark was 3-for-8 from 3-point range with 14 points, while Adam Barnes and Kerron Johnson each had 12. Senior guard Drew Halen scored 10 points, flushing a 3-pointer right before halftime that silenced the Dome.

The Bucs bounced back in the second half scoring 58 points, but Belmont wasn't far behind with 55.

"I'm guessing no team has ever given up 12 points in the first half and 58 in the second," said Belmont coach Rick Byrd. "There were some very strange numbers."

Regardless, Belmont dominated the paint, scoring 48 of its 82 points from close range and picking up 21 points from its bench. ETSU only managed three points from Jarvis Jones, the only bench player to score for the Bucs.

Marcus Dubose scored 18 points for the Buccaneers and shot 50 percent from downtown. Cooley also tallied 18 points along with four steals and three assists.

Point guard Adam Sollazzo had 16 points on 4-for-13 shooting. One stat that should awe ETSU fans is the Bucs recorded 14 steals. They rank second in the country with an average of 10.11 steals per game only behind Jim Boeheim's Syracuse team.

The Bucs will try to turn things around this Friday when they visit the red-hot USC Upstate Spartans, who have defeated both Belmont and Lipscomb in its past two games.