Catawba’s Indians protected their one-game lead in the South Atlantic Conference regular season championship race with a 71-64 victory over Presbyterian’s Blue Hose at Goodman Gym Wednesday night.
It was the Indians’ sixth straight conference win without a loss, and it enabled them to hold onto a game advantage over Wintage in the league chase.
The Indians, ranked 23rd in Division II by the National Basketball Coaches Association, also picked up their eighth win in a row and improved to 15-2 overall.
The loss droppedPresbyterian to 1-5 in the SAC and 8-10 for the season.
Catawba seemed to be on its way to an easy win at halftime. It held a firm 35-19 advantage at intermission.
But the Hose scored seven straight points at the start of the second half and stayed within close range for the rest of the game. The visitors pulled within six points on three occasions down the stretch but couldn’t catch up with the Indians.
“It was an ugly win, and we appeared flat at times,” said Coach Jim Baker of the Indians.
“I thought we played as well on defense in the first half as we have any time this season,” Baker explained. “We held them to 19 points. They made only six field goals and seven free throws during that time.”
It was a bit different in he second half for the Tribe.
“We were flat in the last half,” said Baker. The Indians were outscored 45-36 in the final 20 minutes.
“Presbyterian made a couple of runs against us in the last half, but we answered them,” addedBaker.
Kevin Petty, Terrence Hamilton and Brian Carter combined for 56 points to lead Catawba.
Petty again was high scorer with 23 on 5-for-15 from the floor, including 4-for-12 from 3-point range and 9-for 10 at the foul line.
Petty clinched the victory for the Indians with five straight free throws in the final 90 seconds. His only miss from the line came on his final toss, but the game was decided by that time.
Hamilton, who got the Indians rolling early with 12 points in the first half, finished with 18. He was 8-for-19 from the floor and added two free throws.
Carter, named the SACplayer of the week, collected 15.
Chuck Rayford paced Presbyterian with 19. Jeff Whittle followed with 10.
The Indians, making their best start in a season in recent years, got four quick goals from Hamilton and combined them with a 3-pointer by Petty and a layup by Alex Luyk and moved ahead by 13-7.
They managed a good lead in the low-paced game for the rest of opening half. They got their biggest lead at 16 points on a 3-pointer by Petty with six seconds left in the half.
Catawba made 34.3 percent (24 of 70) for the game. It made only 12 of 27 (32 percent) in the last half. Presbyterian, which was held to 22.2 percent (6 of 27) in the opening half, rallied by making 45.5 (15 of 33) in the last half.
The Indians, bidding for their second straight SACregular season crown, will try to take another step in that direction when they entertain Carson-Newman Saturday afternoon.
Today's News
