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Hatters Weather Storm to Down Dolphins

Men's Basketball Stetson University

Hatters Weather Storm to Down Dolphins

Twice on Saturday afternoon the Stetson Hatters had to dig deep to survive a tough stretch against visiting Jacksonville at the Edmunds Center.

The Hatters were able to survive both periods and, down the stretch, were able to pull away for a 73-61 victory over the Dolphins in front of 1,267 Stetson fans.

Stetson improved to 6-9 overall and 3-2 in Atlantic Sun Conference play with the win while Jacksonville falls to 2-13 with their 11th consecutive loss. JU is 0-4 in league play.

“When you play at home, you should expect to win, and you should be glad when you do,” Hatters coach Casey Alexander said. “I don't think you have to be happy with the performance, but I think you should be glad with the result and hope for the performance to improve the next time.”

Early in the game, the Hatters struggled with their perpetual nemesis – turnovers. The Hatters had 10 give-aways in the first 10 minutes of action, but came out of that stretch trailing by just four, 15-11, thanks to a new wrinkle on defense, a zone.

After a timeout settled things, the Hatters turned it over just once more over the final 10 minutes of the half.

“We still need to take care of the ball better, which has been a problem for us the entire season,” junior center Adam Pegg, who led all scorers in the game with 19 points, said. “We talked about those early turnovers in a timeout and I thought we did a better job of taking care of it as the game went on.”

Once the Hatters started taking better care of the ball, they turned to Pegg on the inside to get some points. Stetson managed to hit just four three-pointers in the game, but shot a blistering 71.4 percent (20-of-28) from inside the arc.

“We only had one turnover for the last seven or eight minutes of the first half, and that was big,” Alexander said. “Adam has been playing much better and has been giving us a lot of production. We were 20-of-28 from inside the line, and all of that is not your five man, but it is from having an emphasis on your five man.”

The Hatters rode Pegg and their better protection of the ball to a 34-27 lead at halftime, but Stetson would have to weather another storm early in the second half.

The Hatters went through a stretch early in the second half when they struggled on the defensive boards and, even though Jacksonville was unable to convert for baskets, the Dolphins were drawing fouls and getting to the line.

Stetson saw a seven-point lead dwindle to two on just JU free throws before the Dolphins' big man, junior forward Glenn Powell, scored one of his six second half baskets to tie the game at 43 with 13:59 left to play. Jacksonville took a brief lead a minute later on a free throw, and had all the momentum on their side, which has been a recipe for disaster this year for Stetson.

“We found a way to maintain our composure enough to stay with it,” Alexander said. “If you saw the Upstate game, or the Charleston Southern games, when things didn't go our way, I wouldn't say that we quit, but we certainly lost concentration and we lost confidence. It was nice to see us battle through that today.”

The Hatters battled through by feeding the ball inside to Pegg, who got the ball on three consecutive possessions, scoring a basket and making a pair of free throws to put Stetson back on top. The Hatters never surrendered the lead again and pushed their advantage to as many as 13 points late in the game.

“We talked at halftime about their fast pace of play and how that might give them an advantage to come back in the game really quickly if we didn't handle ourselves well,” Pegg said. “I don't think their pace was frustrating for us because we have played teams like Florida and Charleston Southern who play faster than they do.”

Stetson was able to build the lead by doing what JU had done in the first half, draw fouls and get to the free throw line. The Hatters hit 14-of-20 free throws in the second half and finished the game having hit 21-of-30 from the stripe.

In the end, the Hatters even fought back to win the battle of the boards, out-rebounding JU 33-31 and earning 12 second chance points on just eight offensive rebounds.

“We gave them a chance to stay in the game with turnovers as we went along but, when it came time to win or lose the game, we performed better,” Alexander said. “That is what you have to do. Sometimes you have to win ugly and, in our case, we are happy to win ugly.”

In addition to Pegg's 19 points, the Hatters got 16 from Chris Perez, 14 from Aaron Graham and 10 from Joel Naburgs. Jacksonville was led by Powell's 16 points. Russell Powell and Keith McDougald contributed 13 points each and Tevin Galvin scored 10.

The Hatters will not take time to celebrate their win over JU because a very good North Florida team will come into the Edmunds Center on Monday afternoon off an overtime victory over Florida Gulf Coast on Saturday and would move into a tie for first place with Belmont in the A-Sun with a victory.

“North Florida will play really hard, really physical, and all 40 minutes,” Alexander said. “It will be a real challenge for us. The last time, on this last road swing, when we won a game and had to come right back and play two days later, we didn't come ready to play. We are all going to be focused on being ready to go on Monday.”

The game on Monday is scheduled for a 4:15 start, following the women's game, which is set for 2 p.m. The game times were moved up from the evening in order to give Stetson fans a chance to watch the Hatters and still get home in time for the BCS National Championship game that evening.
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Players Mentioned

Aaron Graham

#20 Aaron Graham

G
6' 4"
Freshman
Joel Naburgs

#12 Joel Naburgs

G
6' 3"
Freshman
Adam Pegg

#41 Adam Pegg

F/C
6' 9"
Junior
Chris Perez

#3 Chris Perez

G
6' 4"
Redshirt Sophomore

Players Mentioned

Aaron Graham

#20 Aaron Graham

6' 4"
Freshman
G
Joel Naburgs

#12 Joel Naburgs

6' 3"
Freshman
G
Adam Pegg

#41 Adam Pegg

6' 9"
Junior
F/C
Chris Perez

#3 Chris Perez

6' 4"
Redshirt Sophomore
G