A-Sun February Wrap

Wow. Busy week.

The Battle of the Boulevard was, well, weird. Belmont had trouble shooting early. Each team gave up a 14-2 run just after taking a 10-point lead. Lipscomb shot well inside, but LaKory Daniels couldn't buy one from 3-point range. Belmont actually did quite well inside -- not exactly their bread and butter. They rebounded with Lipscomb and when their long stuff wasn't happening they shortened up. Nice adjustment, well executed. Player of the Game -- Jordan Campbell. 11 points and 5 boards, including 7 of 9 from the foul line.

The weirdest decision of the night was Lipscomb playing slap-and-chuck the last 2 minutes. Playing defense down 4 with 1:45 left might be a little early to start fouling, especially since Belmont was in the double bonus. Lipscomb's strategy lengthened the game by 4 possessions, but gave the Bruins 16 free throws in the process. Belmont made 11 of them, forcing Lipscomb to score 15 points in 8 possessions to tie. Conceivable, but not likely.

In other news, Justin Hare is a first-team Academic All-America. He is the third Belmont Bruin to be so honored. This is the seventh time a Bellmont player has made the list, including 2002 when they had 2. Congratulations all around.

Gardner-Webb is peaking. Grayson Flittner hit 15 of 20 3-balls in 2 games, but teammate Thomas Sanders won POW with his 19-point, 22(!)-rebound night against Upstate after a 26 & 16 against ETSU. GW is sitting 4th at 9-5 with a trip to Nashville looming this weekend. Allen Arena is a tough place for anybody to win, and Belmont is the best team in the conference. If GW can get out even with a split, they will be tough next week in the conference tournament.

North Florida is now 1-13 in conference, and that one is Mercer. UNF scored 32 points in the paint, and made over 50% of their 2's for the first time in conference. Given their players, Mercer really should be better than this.

Speaking of surprises, how about those FGCU Lady Eagles? 11-3, with Jacsonville and North Florida coming to town this weekend. Since they lost their first two at JU and UNF, they have won 11 of 12, including a win over conference regular season champ ETSU. Delia de la Torre was on my pre-season All-Conference watch list. I haven't done the math yet, but she's got a look at first team all-conference. Chelsea Dermeyer and Adrianne McNally have been solid.

This from a team I had pegged to go .500 at best in conference play. Way to prove me wrong.