Throughout the early portion of the 2013-2014 season, the Elon University men’s basketball team has thrived on three-point shooting.
On Monday night, Jan. 6, however, the Phoenix built a 15-point halftime advantage without making a single three-pointer. The lead was enough to carry Elon to a 75-66 victory over the visiting Appalachian State University Mountaineers.
“I thought our first half performance was very good,” Elon head coach Matt Matheny said. “Maybe our best half we’ve played all year.”
Elon began the night with a strong defensive performance, jumping out to a 17-9 lead in the game’s first 11 minutes. Following a layup at the 17:10 mark, Appalachian State went nearly ten minutes without a single field goal. Meanwhile, Elon was using offensive sets to drive the ball to the basket.
“We did some things that we haven’t been doing,” Matheny said. “Historically, it takes a while for us to get good at motion offense every year.”
With 12:03 remaining in the first half, junior forward Ryan Winters checked into the game and provided an immediate spark off the bench. Winters scored 10 points in the game’s first half while going 5 for 5 from the field.
“Coming off the pick and roll, my teammates did a good job of finding me when I was open and I did a good job of finding the open spots,” Winters said.
Along with Winters, another forward, senior Ryley Beaumont, scored nine points in the first half. Beaumont, who has struggled to start the season with six games of single-digit scoring, credited his team’s variety of offensive options with his success.
“We have so many options,” Beaumont said. “You can’t guard the pick and roll and guard the shooters on the outside and somebody driving and (senior forward) Lucas (Troutman) in the post. There’s too many options. It showed today with the way they chose to play it- guys like me and Ryan (Winters) cutting through the paint for easy layups.”
Appalachian State only scored three field goals in the final 17 minutes of the first half, and Elon took advantage of the Mountaineers’ 28.6 percent first half shooting to grow the lead. When Winters converted a layup 1:24 before halftime, Elon led by 15 at 33-18. The Phoenix would carry a 35-20 lead into the locker room.
“We’ve got to get better at running our offense, regardless of who we’re playing, and I thought we did that,” Matheny remarked after the game.
The Phoenix built a 20-point lead with 11:34 leading when Troutman dunked to make the score 50-30. From that point, Appalachian State made a run. The Mountaineers went on a 22-10 run culminating in a layup from sophomore guard Frank Eaves with 3:49 remaining.
Elon was able to pull away with free throws down the stretch, keeping the Mountaineer rally at bay.
“Little bit of an uneasy feeling to it the way we handled pressure late, but it’s a step forward,” Matheny said.
“It’s a win, it was gritty, everything didn’t go well,” Beaumont said. “It’s going to be ugly sometimes but I’m proud of us for sticking together through it and getting it done.”
Beaumont’s 16 points led the Phoenix, and Winters followed with a career-high 14 despite what he called a “chipped tooth” on a hard foul in the final minutes of the game. Troutman (13) and senior guard Jack Isenbarger (12) also reached double figures for Elon.
The game marked the third straight game in which sophomore guard Tanner Samson had been held under five points, a far cry from his ten double-figure games from earlier in the season.
“Scouting reports are to take his jumper away, and the last three games they’ve been successful doing it,” Matheny said.
Additionally, Matheny said that senior guard Sebastian Koch was “under the weather” with a cold during the game.
Appalachian State was led by junior forward Jay Canty’s 20 points. Senior forward Tevin Baskin also added 17 for head coach Jason Capel’s team, which drops to 4-10, 0-1 in the Southern Conference.
Elon improves to 8-8, 1-1 in conference with the win. The Phoenix will face The Citadel on Saturday night inside Alumni Gym. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.