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Catawba’s basketball team is unbeaten, and Brian Carter’s offensive improvement is a big reason for the Indians’ 4-0 start.
The 6-foot-5 sophomore forward led Catawba’s balanced attack by matching his career high of 17 points in an 89-76 victory over West Virginia Tech at Goodman Gym Saturday night.
“Last year my strong point was defense and rebounding. They didn’t really look for me to score, just probably defend one of the best post players and rebound.I could block shots real good and rebound,” said Carter.
Carter, from Alexandria, Va., had a 5.3 scoring average as a reserve last year, when he had an impressive 45 offensive rebounds. He’s not started a game this season, but is the Indians’ No. 2 scorer with an 11.8 average.
“He has improved his shooting so much,” said coach Jim Baker. “He’s worked on his shot. ... He’s hitting that medium-range jumper.”
“I’ve tried to get my shot a little better. I changed my shot, changed it from one side to the other,” said the right-hander. “I used to shoot it over here (left shoulder). I changed it and straightened up my elbow to this side (right shoulder).”
Carter shot 50 percent last year and has upped his percentage to 60.6 (20-for-33) as a sophomore. Two slam dunks helped him go 7-for-12 last night.
“He had that one dunk going down the stretch that just sort of broke the game open,” said Baker. “That was a heck of a play.”
Carter’s second slam dunk of the night opened up Catawba’s biggest lead at 73-58 with 8:06 to play.
Baker pointed out that practice time is one reason Carter isn’t in the starting lineup, plus he likes having athletes like Carter and the quick duo of Duke Phipps and Kevin Petty coming off the bench.
“He was outplaying (power forward) Terrence (Hamilton) for the longest time in the fall, in the preseason,” said Baker. “He had about a week right before we started playing that he wasn’t playing quite well. He lost a little confidence in his shot. He really has taken a lot of interest in his academics. He’s got a lot of classes at 2 (p.m.). He rushes into practice and doesn’t get in enough shooting early in practice. He’s been coming back at night shooting the ball.”
West Virginia Tech’s Bears, who came in with a 4-1 record and an impressive 98.6 scoring average, played the home team tough in the first half, trailing only 43-41 at halftime.
“They had scored 100 three times. They have a good ballclub, and they’re hard to guard,” said Baker.
“The first half we were trying to really get out there on their shooters. If you look at the stat sheet, they were a really, really good shooting team — 3-point shooting team,” said the Catawba coach.
The Bears had made 52 of 128 3-pointers through the first five games, a solid 40.6 percent.
“We were all out trying to stop them from shooting those 3s, and they were beating us on the dribbled,” Baker said of the first half, which saw the Tech point guards penetrate and dish off to open players on the baseline for layups.
Baker said he told his players at halftime, “Let’s back that thing up in there. Don’t let him (point guard) slice us up. Get into the lane and maybe they’ll miss a few. Sure enough, they came out the second half and they couldn’t throw one in the ocean. I think they started panicking because they realized they were so open, and they rushed some shots.”
The West Virginians were 4-for-10 on 3-pointers in the first half, but only 4-for-16 the rest of the night.
Catawba took advantage of the Bears’ cold shooting to start the second half on a 10-0 run for a 53-41 lead. Tech’s first basket of the half didn’t come until the 15:53 mark on a 3-pointer by Brooks Blake.
The Indians gradually built that lead to 15 before the home team hit a cold spell. The West Virginians scrapped back to within six at 76-70 on Philip Godfrey’s jumper with 2:59 to play.
Catawba came back with two free throws by Phipps, another by Jacob Parks and two more by Carter to go up by 11 at the 1:38 mark.
Carter was joined in double figures by season scoring leader Nedzad Gusic (16), Phipps (14), Petty (12) and Alex Luyk (10).
The Indians not only outshot the Bears 53.3 to 41.9 percent, but Catawba dominated under the boards, outrebounding Tech 49-28. Carter and Terrence Hamilton led the way with eight rebounds apiece, with Luyk had seven.Carter and Luyk each had five offensive rebounds, matching the team total for Tech.
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NOTES: Delonta Jones led Tech with 14 points. Godfrey (12), Tony Bigham (10) and Jabbar Thomas (10) also hit double figures. ... Phipps terrorized Tech with his quickness, coming up with a game-high six steals in addition to driving inside for layups, short jumpers and three assists. ... The Indians were 5-for-9 on 3-pointers with Petty making two and Phipps, Gusic and B.J. Robertson adding one each. ... Catawba will not be at home again untilJan. 2 against Livingstone. The Indians travel to Johnson C. Smith Tuesday, Livingstone Thursday and Newport News on Saturday, then play in the Rollins Rotary Classic in Winter Park, Fla.
WEST VIRGINIA TECH (76) — Wade 7, Funk 8, Thomas 10, Blake 5, Jones 14, Reed, Bigham 10, Sharpe 2, Fout 2, Robinson 6, Sutherland, Godfrey 12.
CATAWBA (89) — Hamilton 9, Raikes 7, Luyk 10, Gusic 16, Robertson 3, Phipps 14, Carter 17, Parks 1, Petty 12, Hagaman, Parker.
West Virginia Tech 41 35 — 76
Catawba 43 46 — 89
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