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Message: [QUOTE="IthacaMatt, post: 140083, member: 405"] A business-like effort. This is a game we would have lost in past seasons. Our starting center in foul trouble. Our back-up out injured. The freshman third string center fouls out after a game where he can't stop anyone defensively and can't get a rebound unless it falls straight into his hands. Our star forward has another game where he disappears - literally zero rebounds until there was about 3:45 to go in the game (although I'll grant it was a big one at the time ...). That's a game we lose most years. Killed on the boards. Soft, soft, soft. We didn't give up 2nd chances, we gave up third and fourth chances during one stretch of the 2nd half when Southerland was at Center. He played remarkably well for us, James Southerland. He doesn't play all game while JB keeps Christmas out there, and Dirty comes in and hits a 25 foot three pointer on his first touch, gets a rebound and draws a charge in the middle of the zone. Big contribution right there. Brandon had his best game in a while. There was a point where Brandon was kind of forced into being more assertive on offensive, because of the other players who were out there with him. I think that had something to do with getting him started on that hot streak, which was really the key to the game. Triche took this game over for us. I'd like to see him get on one of the four or five game hot streaks right now, like he's done in the past. Kris put up some good numbers thanks to some run outs on the break and hitting a couple three pointers, but he seemed to float thru this game and not really be that involved. That was disappointing, especially when we were so limited in the middle. We needed him to play bigger. C.J. also got off to a slow start, which contributed to the game still being close into halftime. C.J. stepped it up after the break, though, and had a few moments where he made key plays to respond to Providence runs. Dion was Dion. Very solid. Happy to see Mike Carter-Williams hit a couple, although he stills looks a little skittish looking for shots. I think he's happy just to be out there passing, playing defense and scrapping for loose balls right now. The key difference between this year and last year is that this year, we don't need for Scoop to force his offense. He is the guy among the senior guys who we can MOST afford to have lay back and pick his spots. We've got so many other guys who can light it up this year. None of those other guys were that confident last year. That's the biggest difference. Us getting past 65 points doesn't depend on Scoop finding 15-20 points somehow, and not telegraphing too many of his passes to Ricky. That was all he could do last year. Nobody else was dependable, but for Rick. Kris just didn't grow into it right away. Very solid win. I feel very good that all those things went wrong, and still 5 other guys stood up and did enough for us to win. Great feeling about this team. [/QUOTE]

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