On Saturday night, the Rebs traveled to Little Rock, Arkansas to face the 28-RPI-boasting Arkansas Little Rock Trojans. The Rebs got off to a fantastic start, leading 22-6 at one point, then fell asleep (six point lead at the half)before pulling away in the second half.
- Reggie Buckner was sensational. He finished with his first double-double (14 points, 11 rebounds) and five blocks. He was quite frustrating at the line though (4-11), and Kennedy called him out in the radio post-game show. Andy (rightfully so) said that if Buckner could "make a free throw," he would have scored twenty. I'm not happy with his performance at the line, but we knew going in that Buck wasn't going to shoot well from there (remember last year?) He did everything else well and only finished with three fouls. He finished with 26 minutes.
- Terrance Henry once again finished with four fouls in 26 minutes, forcing us to play a four guard lineup for much of the game. When Henry is in, we work well down low as he seems to often feed the ball to Buckner. He had three assists in limited time last night, and at least two were to Buck. Henry finished with eight points.
- Dundrecous Nelson continued his impressive play, going 3-4 from three point land in fourteen minutes of play. More importantly, his threes came in clutch situations, as even David Kellum's voice would start deflating with a flurry of big plays by the Trojans only to see Nelson drain a three that swung the momentum back towards the Rebs. Nelson is also having trouble with fouls, but he's only a freshman, so perhaps he gets a break.
- Chris Warren was as mellow as Jell-O on Saturday. Warren (18 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists, 1 block, 2 turnovers, 1 foul) was fouled three times late in the game when the Trojans were trying to get back into it. He responded with a 6-6 FT performance. The little guy didn't reach the magical twenty number, but five boards and seven assists were helpful. He did shoot seven threes, only making two, but without having seen the game I can't really judge his shot selection. Kellum didn't mention a particularly poor choice on the radio.
- The only other player worth talking about is Zach Graham. Graham finished with seventeen points on 6-10 shooting. Surprisingly, the 96% shooter was only 2-5 at the line. Two of those misses came in the second half when the Rebs were trying to solidify the win. Frustrating to say the least. Everyone's entitled to an off night though, and Graham made up for it in other aspects. He had three boards (two offensive), an assits, a steal, and two blocks. Zach Graham has become a very consistent player this year, and I think he has benefited more than anyone else by the departure of Eniel.
The Rebs played solid defense on the Trojans' leading scorer Solomon Bozeman. Bozeman finished 2-12 and didn't score in the second half despite playing for 32 minutes. The Trojans shot only 39% overall and 23% from three. Also, despite attempting seventeen more shots than the Rebs, they lost by fourteen. Good on-ball defense all night.
Buster_bluth, what were Nick Williams +/- numbers from last night? He didn't do a lot statistically, but I want to know how he affected the game outside of that.