Spartans Crush Samford in SoCon Opener

UNCG 73 - Samford 40

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Samford Athletics

It's lucky for Samford that Mark Ingram and the Crimson Tide were getting ready to blow away Tim Tebow's Florida Gators. Otherwise, someone might have shown up at the Hanna Center and watched the Spartans destroy them 73-40. It was UNCG largest win in league history and largest over a D1 opponent. There were lots of positives and very few negatives. Let's get to them.

Positives
- Defense --- UNCG held Samford to 27.3% shooting for the game and 13.6% (3-22) in the second half. The Bulldogs didn't make a field goal the final 11 minutes of the game and only scored 12 points the entire second half. Those are some amazing stats regardless of the opponent. The Spartans didn't allow Samford's "Princeton offense" to get the backdoor cuts that it's accustomed to getting.
- Guards --- I will just lump them all into this category instead of listing them individually. Kyle Randall (21 pts, 5 rebs & 3 assists), Korey VanDussen (11 pts & 4 assists) and Brandon Evans (16 pts & 3 assists) all played tremendous and had great stat lines. You could also throw Kendall Toney into that mix as well. Kendall didn't have a great line, but did plenty of good things. All-in-all it was the most impressive game I've seen out of UNCG guards in the past few years.
- Big Men Shine Too --- I think I'll lump all of the forwards in together as well. After a rough outing last week, Ben Stywall (11 pts & 15 rebs) emerged again. Pete Brown, Elhanan Bone and Brian Cole all did a great job too. UNCG out rebounded Samford 40-22 (13-7 offensive rebounds), outscored them in the paint 20-10 and outscored them in second chance points 14-3.
- Effort --- It would have been easy for UNCG to get sloppy and play down to their opponent when Samford basically mailed it in during the second half. Instead the Spartans put their foot on the gas and finished them off. Also, UNCG showed up at game time with a lot of energy and intensity. This was a problem the previous Saturday when UNCG didn't seem to know the game against ECU had even started. Hopefully, the guys will continue to bring this kind of effort and energy to the court every night.

When you beat a team by 33, you have to stretch to find faults. While I'm sure coach Dement could point out plenty of them, mine are really reaches at best.

Negatives
- Koivisto? --- I was shocked to look at the box score and see Mikko only played 2 minutes. After 2 really bad turnovers in the first half, he left the game and never got back on the court. Mikko has really had a rough few games and I hope that he can find what has made him a good player throughout the years. If not, he may find it hard to get back into the lineup with all of these young guards playing so well.
- Turnovers --- I know that UNCG only had 13 for the game. However, the 8 in the first half were the only thing that allowed Samford to stay competitive. UNCG beat them soundly in almost every statistical category and yet only led by 3 points on the scoreboard. When you are shooting almost 50% and making 5-9 3 pointers, you want to take shots on every single trip down the floor.

It was good to get a conference road win against a division opponent. Now UNCG sits at 1-0 in the SoCon with an undefeated College of Charleston coming to the Greensboro Coliseum tomorrow night. Time to get a win in front of the home crowd.