12.10.06

It’s a young University of Charleston team that has played fewer games than most of its competition, and the Golden Eagles showed it at times in their 77-75 loss to Edinboro Saturday at Eddie King Gym.

Playing just their fourth game, the Golden Eagles started slowly against the two-time defending Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference champions, then dominated the first 13 minutes of the second half to take nine-point lead. But a few rookie mistakes and clutch defense by the Fighting Scots turned the tide back.

Ultimately, the game came down to Joseph Jones stealing the ball from UC’s leading scorer, Marquis Brooks, in the final six seconds. When coach Greg White called timeout, he wanted the 6-foot-3 junior from Dayton, Ohio, to either build on his 23 points or find somebody open for an easy score.

But Jones killed the suspense early, tapping the ball loose and then pilfering it from Brooks. By the time the 6-2 sophomore gained full control, the buzzer sounded to end the contest.

“The last play, we wanted to get it to Brooks and let him dribble-drive it, take it to the hole,” White said. “If he had to, dish it to a big [man] or kick it to a wing, the first available receiver. Unfortunately, they deflected it, got a finger on it and we turned it over.”

The result dropped UC to 1-3, and that one hurt a little — especially when you consider how close the Eagles were to putting the game out of reach.

UC trailed 32-28 at halftime, but came out strong behind big shots from Brooks and freshman Warren Wallace. Brooks hit four of his five 3-point goals after halftime, and Wallace scored nine of his 15 points in the second half.

But it should have been more. After Brooks gave UC a 64-56 lead with a 3-pointer, Wallace stole the ball and drove to the other end for what should have been an easy basket. But in his attempt at a stylish dunk, the ball slipped a little and he missed the shot, then fouled on the rebound.

That came with 6:48 left in the game. It took Edinboro precisely 93 seconds to tie the game with a 10-2 run.

“We made a huge mistake on the dunk. That was a huge momentum swing,” White said. “You’re plus-10 there if you make a layup. And instead, 40 seconds later [the lead] is three.”

UC’s Austin Weatherington broke the tie with a 3-pointer on the fast break to make it 69-66, but that was the Eagles’ last lead. After Daren Tielsch hit a free throw, Devon Knight and Jones both hit two baskets to give the Scots a 73-69 lead with 2:30 left.

From there, UC nearly fought back. When Knight fumbled a routine pass into the backcourt for a violation, the Eagles had 23.6 seconds to tie or win it. But the Eagles nearly lost the ball before White called the final timeout.

“The last 10 times they had the ball, they only scored twice,” said coach Greg Walcavich, in his 18th season at Edinboro (6-2). “We felt like we could defend it, and fortunately, we scored enough to come back.”

The Scots’ starting five all scored in double figures, led by Knight’s 17. Jones had 14, Curtis Ingram and Tielsch both scored 11, and Ryan McLemore had 10. Tielsch, a 1,000-point career scorer, also had 11 rebounds and McLemore had 10 boards — even though both suffered their fourth foul early in the second half.

As it turned out, UC forward Dustin Kinney was the only man who fouled out, doing so with 6:00 left. He finished with 10 points.

The Eagles break for final exams before coming back at 2 p.m. next Saturday against Ohio-Eastern. The cancellation of their holiday tournament has set them back in the number of games played, possibly delaying the development of freshmen such as Wallace and John White.

“We’re fighting through a little bit of a youth movement right now, and some young guys are working hard,” White said. “It hasn’t come together for us yet, but in the second half we broke out of our scoring slump. We need to put together back-to-back halves like that.

“We have three guys who have never played college basketball in our top six and, unfortunately, we’re making some mistakes when you can’t make them.”