Southwest TN and Dyersburg vs. CSCC Basketball Teams (11/9/12 & 11/10/12)
November 12, 2012
By BRYAN
GRISHAM
CSCC Sports Information
The Cleveland State Cougars entered the
first weekend of conference play with an undefeated record and when
the dust had settled on Saturday afternoon at L.Quentin Lane
Gymnasium, the Cougars record was still unblemished as they took
care of business with two big conference wins over Southwest
Tennessee and Dyersburg State.
On Friday night the Cougars pulled off
the upset of the Southwest Tennessee Saluqis by an 84-74 final
talley and then had their way with the Eagles of Dyersburg State on
Saturday afternoon by a final score of 87-71.
The news was not as good for Lady Cougar
fans as the Cleveland State ladies dropped both of their games to
Southwest on Friday, 74-59 and then let a late lead slip away on
Saturday, dropping a 70-62 decision to the Lady Eagles.
The Cougars (4-0, 2-0) made quick work of
the Eagles (3-2, 0-2), opening the Saturday afternoon matinee with
a 15-4 run and never looking back. Gabe Dando got the home team off
and running with a tri-fecta of three-pointers in the opening
minutes while Kahan Swift continued his good work in the paint with
a pair of putbacks.
Filippe Goncalves and Jameico McPherson
came off the Cougar bench and put points on the board immediately
as the Cleveland State lead grew rapidly to a 24 point spread. Tim
Triplett added a bucket in the paint as the Cougars took their
largest lead to the
break at 43-26.
It was the same verse second chapter for
Dando as he knocked down two quick long range bombs to start the
second half just like he did in the first. Xavier Okoro, Tim
Triplett and Tre Everette came off the Cougar bench and helped
extend the lead to 20 plus points and that is where it stayed for
most of the rest of the game. Triplett hit a three-pointer and
Goncalves did the same as he put the exclamation point on big
weekend of basketball for the Cougars.
"You can't start out much better than two
big conference wins on the first conference weekend," explained
Cougar coach Lee Cigliano. "I know the guys think that I am a
broken record, but I keep telling them that we are going to need
all 10 guys to contribute in a positive manner to be successful and
that is exactly what they did this weekend. We played as a team,
everyone
did their part and we won two games. It
truly was a total team effort."
Dando led six Cougars in double digit
scoring with 15 points, Ralph Eason had 14 points, seven boards and
six assists, Swift finished with 12 points and 15 rebounds,
Goncalves and Triplett added 11 points each and Trey Suttles had 10
points.
Marty Wilkerson led the Eagles with 15
points and Caleb Woods had 10.
LADY EAGLES 70 LADY COUGARS 62
The Lady Cougars jumped out to a quick 9-2 advantage
over the Lady Eagles, but then cooled off a bit as Dyersburg
mounted a rally and took their first lead midway through the first
half 17-16 on a layup from Christiana Purvis. The lead changed
hands eight times after that as Purvis added a three-point play
only to see Shadave Taylor do the same thing on the next trip down
the court for the Lady Cougars.
Jara Gasper got in on the three-point
play fun with one of her own at the three minute mark to put the
home team on top and Robyn Anthony added a nice left handed layup
to put Cleveland State on top by five points. Monica Womack nailed
a trey at the halftime buzzer for Dyersburg State to cut the Lady
Cougar lead to 32-30 at the break.
A steal and a layup by Anthony and
another steal and layup from Me'Lisa Martinez helped the Lady
Cougars maintain their slim lead throughout most of the second
half. Dyersburg just kept hanging around though and finally caught
up and took the lead at 50-49 on a three-pointer from Kindra Brown.
Hannah Brown countered with a trey to put Cleveland State back on
top, but Marina Harwell put Dyersburg on top for good with a pair
of clutch long range shots. The Visitors
then hit six of eight free throws to
secure the win.
"We let this one get away from us," said
Lady Cougar coach Dan Lumpkin. "It is very dissappointing, we
didnt' defend down the stretch we gave them wide open threes and
they hit them. We had a lead with three minutes to play and let it
get away."
Ciera Anderson led the Lady Cougars (1-3,
0-2) with 15
points and eight boards while Jara Gasper added 11 points. Harwell
paced the Lady Eagles with 16 points Kelsey Nowlin added 12 and
Brown and Purvis finished with 10 each.
COUGARS 84 SALUQIS 74
The tall trees
of the Southwest Tennessee Saluqis appeared as if they would run
the Cougars right out of their own gym on Friday night as the
visitors opened the game with a 21-7 run.
The Cougars
weathered the storm though and steadily cut into the lead the rest
of the half. Tre Everette came off the Cleveland State bench and
immediately knocked down a 3-pointer and along with his running
buddies, Tim Triplett and Xavier Okoro turned up the intensity
level a couple of notches.
Eason and Travis Jones then took turns blowing by
Saluqi defenders with relative ease as they each hit a pair of
acrobatic, off-balance layups to cut the lead to only three points
with three minutes to play in the half. A steal and a rim-rattling
tomahawk slam dunk by Eason brought the crowd to its feet and
sliced the lead to a single digit. Jones added another layup to the
cause and just like that the Cougars had erased a 14 point lead to
take a 35-33 halftime lead.
After a good
tounge-lashing from their coach at halftime, the saluquis scored 10
of the first 12 points to start the second half as Marshun Newell
and Cedric McAfee hit a 3-pointer each.
At the six minute mark of the game the Cougars
finally caught and passed their guests with two layups from Eason,
a three-point play from Jones and a pair of long range shots from
Dando to take a 69-66 lead. A huge offensive rebound and putback
from Swift broke a tie once again for the Cougars with just over
two minutes to go and from there the home team took control hitting
eight of nine free tosses down the stretch to secure the win and
their first conference win of the season.
The Cougars hit 27 of 38 free throws, but hit 17 of
19 in the second half and shot 48 percent from the floor in the
second half. Cleveland State also out-rebounded the much
taller Saluqis, 46-33 and committed only 12 turnovers.
"This was a big win," said Cigliano. "We
shot the ball well, but our hustle and rebounding won this game
tonight. Southwest is so tall and athletic and we outrebounded
them. It was a total team effort. We got a lift from our bench as
well."
Eason led
the Cougar charge with 23 points, eight rebounds and four assists.
Trey Suttles had and outstanding game with 15 points and 15
rebounds, Jones finished with 13 points and Everette had 11. Chris
Campbell led the Saluqis with 23 points, McAfee had 17 and Newell
had 16.
LADY SALUQIS 74 LADY COUGARS 59
The Lady
Cougars were not as fortunate as the men on Friday night as they
dug themselves a big hole early and were never quite able to crawl
out. The Lady Saluqis sizzled the nets right out of the gate with a
20-5 run and never looked back, shooting 55 percent from the floor
to only 26 percent for the home team.
The Southwest
lead grew to as many as 22 points midway through the first half as
Teneisha Lurry scored from all points on the floor including a
3-pointer and several driving layups knocking down 15 points in the
half. The Lady Cougars warmed a bit in the final minutes as Shea
Nunn and Robyn Anthony knocked down a three each and Mercedes Owens
added a pair of treys to help the Lady Cougars slice the lead to 13
points, 43-30 at halftime.
The Lady
Saluqis raced out to a 20 plus margin in the second half, but once
again the Lady Cougars made a run with Owens hitting two more long
range shots and Ciera Anderson adding six tough points in the
paint. The home team cut the lead to 11 and had a possession to
slice it to single digits, but the Lady Saluqis righted the ship
and finished off their first conference win of the season.
Lurry paced
the Lady Saluqis (2-1, 1-0) with 19 points while Iesha Carruthers
added 11. Owens led the Lady Cougars with 13 points, Anderson had
12 points and 8 boards while Anthony added 10 points.
The Cougars
will host Bryan College on Monday at 7:00 while the Lady Cougars
will travel to Georgia Northwestern on Tuesday.
