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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 195607, member: 289"] - Can we please have an easy game? Six of our last nine games have been decided by less than 10 points. And this wasn’t one of them. - Our vaunted defense was a no-show in the first half. I realize that we had to extend to cover the shooters but Fab Melo should have been able to handle Gilvydas Biruta by himself. Remember what he did to Herb Pope? Biruta in his last three games had been 5 for 17 and scored 18 points. In this game he was 9 for 14 and scored 21 points. - Our starting line up went 6-2, 6-4, 6-7, 6-9, 7-0 with 6-4, 6-8, 6-8, 6-10 coming off the bench. Rutgers countered with 5-9, 6-1, 6-2, 6-6-, 6-8 backed up by 6-5, 6-8, 6-9. Yet we got out-rebounded by 29-34. They had an edge bigger than that in loose balls. They had 13 offensive rebounds to 7 for us. We forced only two more turnovers, so they had a serious edge in effective possessions, second chances, etc. - Dion Waiters see4med to have gotten back on track vs. Connecticut. Since then he’s 5 for 17 from the field and 3 for 7 from the line. Brandon Triche had missed 15 of his last 17 treys and James Southerland has missed 15 of 16. - Foul Shots: Scoop Jardine missed both at 10:31. Dion Waiters did the same at 1:53. Fab Melo who had made 13 in a row missed two with 22 seconds left. Brandon Triche, whom we all wanted in because he’s our best free throw shooter since GMAC, was sent in with 31 seconds left, got fouled a second alter and missed. He made the second, fortunately. - Bad stretches: We are up 14-8 at 13:00 and give up a 3-13 run in the next 4:40 in which we make one field goal on a transition alley-oop to Triche. We are up 46-39 at 16:17 of the second half and give up a 2-7 run over the next 1:43. But the most excruciating segment came after we built the lead back up to 56-50 at 10:58 on a trey by Jardine. Keita got us a steal and Scoop got fouled. It looked as if we might be getting some separation. That’s when he missed both ends. We got the ball back but Waiters committed a silly offensive foul with a forearm. A jumper by Mike Poole made it 56-52. After a Jardine airball, Poole did it again. 56-54. Joseph turned it over and Rutgers was playing for a tie or the lead. Joseph got a block but 5-9 Myles Mack rebounded. He turned it over but Scoop missed a lay-up. Finally Melo got fouled and made two free throws at 7:00. We finally got separation with the final 10-2 run but there’s got to be an easier way to win a game. [/QUOTE]

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