After 17 games, it has become evident that the Elon University men’s basketball team lives and dies by its success from behind the arc. Even when shots are not falling, the Phoenix is not afraid to keep shooting.
On Jan. 11, 31 shots went up from behind the arc from the hands of Phoenix shooters. Only nine went through, but it was the timeliness of those three-pointers that was key for the Phoenix. In the end, Elon did just enough to secure a 74-65 victory over The Citadel on Saturday night, Jan. 11, inside Alumni Gym.
The Phoenix seemed just a step slower than the Bulldogs in the opening minutes, as The Citadel got out in transition and made a few easy baskets to take an early 10-5 lead at the under-16 media timeout. Elon then scored six unanswered points only to have The Citadel go on a run of its own, an 8-0 stretch that gave the Bulldogs an 18-13 lead at the under-8 timeout.
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The Phoenix lives and dies by their three-point shooting, and this was maybe never more evident than in the first half. They got out to an ice-cold start, connecting on just one of their first 13 attempts from deep. As Elon continued to shoot three-pointers, the shots eventually began to fall.
The Phoenix caught fire and buried five straight three-pointers, led by senior guard Sebastian Koch. Koch made four of his seven three-point attempts in the first half and finished the game with 14 points. Aided by this success from behind the arc, the Phoenix finished the half on a 16-7 run and led 36-29 after 20 minutes of play.
“If you have guys shooting like Sebastian, you get him the ball,” said forward Lucas Troutman, who had a team-high 19 points and nine rebounds. “And that’s something that we were doing and he was doing a great job of scoring. That’s what we needed. We started out slow and he picked us up and got us going.”
Junior Austin Hamilton, the starting point guard for the Phoenix, was forced to the bench early in the first half with two fouls, but senior guard Jack Isenbarger was able to shoulder the load and provide solid minutes in his absence. Though Isenbarger, who has started in the past, has been coming off of the bench this season, he feels that his approach to the game remains unchanged.
“(Coming off the bench) doesn’t change it too much,” Isenbarger said. “You want to come in, play hard and understand your role. We are hitting the middle of the season and guys are understanding their roles and everything they have to do, and I’m just trying to do that as well.”
Isenbarger has averaged 15.4 points per game in his five career games against The Citadel, including a 34-point performance in 2012, which still stands as the single game scoring record during Elon’s time in Division I. Isenbarger finished with 15 points in 24 minutes in this year’s installment.
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Hamilton had an effective second half once he was back on the floor, finishing with six assists to just one turnover. His three-point play put the Phoenix up 46-31 at the under-16 media timeout, Elon’s largest lead of the second half. The Bulldogs put up a fight in the second half, cutting Elon’s lead down to as few as seven with less than four minutes to play, but Isenbarger’s three-pointer with just over 1:30 remaining gave the Phoenix a 74-60 lead, an advantage they would not relinquish.
Even after a nine-point Elon victory, both the players and head coach stressed the need for improvement on both sides of the ball before the two games that lie ahead on the schedule. The Phoenix will play Davidson College on Jan. 16 and then host No. 19 University of Massachusetts-Amherst inside Alumni Gym next Saturday night, Jan. 18.
When asked about the upcoming game against Davidson, Troutman mentioned one word – rivalry.
“That’s a team that’s won the SoCon the past couple years and been the best team in the conference and that’s the team we want to knock off,” Troutman said.
Elon coach Matt Matheny expressed that every conference game is a tough one, and applauded the toughness of The Citadel, a team that came into the game having lost nine of its last 10 games. Matheny’s squad had just four turnovers in the game, setting a record for the lowest amount of turnovers during his tenure as head coach.
“It’s another step in the process of trying to be as good as we can be,” Matheny said. “It’s a process. Each team is different from the team before. Even though we got better defensively, we have plenty of room for improvement.”
This week begins one of the most exciting weeks of basketball in Elon program history. While it is easy to get caught up in the moment, Matheny is taking it one day at a time.
“I really haven’t thought anything about (Davidson),” Matheny said. “I just know that it’s next. And what’s really next is trying to formulate a practice that will make us a better team tomorrow.”
Elon improves to 9-8 and 2-1 in the SoCon with the win. The Phoenix travels to the school where Matheny spent 16 years as an assistant coach for their next game, a Thursday night tilt against the Davidson Wildcats. Tip is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Jan. 16 inside Belk Arena.