RALEIGH, NC – After having their five-game win streak snapped yesterday by Greensboro, the William Peace men's basketball team got back on track this afternoon, as the Pacers held on to beat conference leading Averett University, 77-74.
WPU improves to 11-10 overall and 7-3 in USA South play. The Pacers are only a half game back of Averett for first place, as the Cougars dropped to 14-7 overall and 8-3 in the conference.
Nate Strother hit his first of consecutive three's at the 16:29 mark, and then Shawn Shaffer added five straight, capping an 11-0 burst that put WPU up 12 (20-8) less than five minutes in. Ryan Emfinger nailed one from beyond the arc with 12:41 left, giving the Pacers a 14 point (25-11) lead, their largest of the game, but Averett battled back to within two (39-37) at halftime.
There were seven ties and eight lead changes in what proved to be a tightly contested, back-and-forth second half. Trevor West converted a three-point play the old fashioned way to give Averett a three point edge less than five minutes in, but the Pacers used an 8-0 spurt, retaking a five point (53-48) lead at the 13:52 mark.
Emfinger drained a triple at the 11:50 mark to push he Pacers lead back to five (58-53) a couple minutes later, but Carter Jones slammed one home, capping an 11-2 run that put Averett on top by four (64-60) with 7:53 to go.
Strother scored seven straight points, and then Shaffer added another bucket to put the Pacers up by six (74-68) with 3:38 left to play. Averett cut the lead to one (75-74) with 1:03 to go and had the ball for a final possession, but despite carrying the Cougars for much of the day, West coughed it up with 12 second left, and Michael Wolf closed it out with a pair of free-throws.
"We played tougher today. We missed a lot of looks, but to still defend like we did and to rebound with the best rebounding team in the conference was tremendous," said head coach Claude Shields. "There were a couple times in the second half I thought we could have folded, but we never did. We just kept playing extremely hard, and pulled ourselves to only a half game out of first place."
WPU finished the game shooting 42.6% (29-of-68) from the field, and with the exception of their run in the first half, the Pacers didn't shoot particularly well from long-distance going 7-of-28 (25%). As Shields alluded to though, the Pacers buckled down defensively, holding Averett to 43.8% (28-of-64) from the field and 20% (3-of-20) from deep. WPU also scored 23 second chance points thanks to 19 offensive rebounds and turned the Cougars over 12 times for 18 points at the other end.
Shaffer led the Pacers with 25 points and five boards, one point shy of his career high, which he achieved in the Pacer's win last February at Averett. Strother had 16 big points off the bench to go along with two rebounds and two assists. Ryan Emfinger registered his first career double-double with 14 points and a career high 11 rebounds.
West led the Cougars with 17 points, three rebounds, and five assists, while Charles Bryant recorded a double-double of 12 points and 15 boards.
The WPU men's basketball team returns to action this Wednesday as they take on Methodist University at 5:30 p.m.
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