Las Vegas, Nev. - After falling behind early the Stetson men's basketball team made a second half run to get to within 10 points yet came up short 72-56 to Akron Wednesday afternoon in the Las Vegas Holiday Hoops Classic. Tyshawn Patterson (Orlando, Fla.) led the Hatters with 18 points. Ridge Graham (Stuart, Fla.) tallied his fourth double-double of the season with 10 points and 12 rebounds.
Akron came out in the first half with a game plan that involved outside shooting to counteract Stetson's challenging zone defense. The plan worked to perfection as the Zips buried 10 treys out of 18 attempts (55.6%) and built up a 42-27 lead at the break. Akron came into the tournament shooting 33% from beyond the arc.
"They did a real nice job against our match zone and made plays in the first half", said Stetson head coach Derek Waugh. "A positive to take away from this was that we did not hang our heads in the second half and came out and played hard."
The Hatters slowed the game down in the second half and forced the Zips to focus more of their offense inside where Stetson finished with a 26-8 advantage in points scored the paint. With hard work and tenacious defense Stetson was able to reduce the deficit to 10 points after Ridge Graham converted a layup with 4:07 remaining.
Coming down the stretch it became clear that Akron would have to hit some free throws to keep Stetson from cutting further into the lead. Although the Zips accuracy from outside subsided in the second half, they were deadly from the line knocking down all 12 of their attempts when it counted most. For the game Akron shot 94% from the line (16-of-17) compared to 52% (14-for-27) for Stetson. The Hatters outrebounded the Zips 37-29, yet also turned the ball over 23 times compared to 17.
"The two stats that really killed us in this game were our 23 turnovers and our poor free throw shooting", said Waugh. "Getting to the free throw line more times than them [27-17] doesn't do us any good when they make more than we do."
"We are using this tournament to build on heading into the conference season. We would like to make our adjustments before New Year's rather than after New Year's... We will learn from this", he added.
Next up the Hatters will conclude their play in the Las Vegas Holiday Hoops Classic against Arkansas-Little Rock Thursday December 23 at 7:00 p.m. Stetson fans can hear the games on Hatter Vision with 17-year veterans Murray Miller and Harry Arnold calling the action. Also be sure to follow the Hatters on Twitter at @StetsonSID (twitter.com/stetsonsid), "like" Stetson Athletics on Facebook and check out the official YouTube channel at youtube.com/stetsonhatters.
