Men's Basketball

UC Holds Off Shepherd 74-66
March 1, 2006

By Doug Smock
Staff writer, The Charleston Gazette

As far as one could tell Tuesday night, "Sweet Georgia Brown" wasn’t in the Eddie King Gym’s CD repertoire.

But Robert Siwo was in the building, and the University of Charleston needed his circus jumper to repel upset-minded Shepherd in the first round of the West Virginia Conference men’s tournament. His turnaround 3-point goal with 1:15 left broke a 62-all tie in UC’s 74-66 victory before 150 fans.

"What are you going to do?" asked Shepherd coach Ken Tyler. "The Harlem Globetrotters are coming to Shepherd on Monday, and we’re probably going to see that shot then."

UC (18-10) advanced to the quarterfinals for the 10th consecutive year, where the Golden Eagles will face top seed Alderson-Broaddus (21-5) at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Civic Center.

It was far from easy for the No. 8 seed. After leading by 15 points in the first half and 12 early in the second half, the Golden Eagles found themselves down six with less than six minutes left and the ball in Shepherd’s possession.

Siwo, who led UC with 16 points despite being smothered under a triangle-and-two defense, hit three of his four 3-pointers after that. After Chad Myers missed a sloppy shot off a drive, Siwo clipped a 58-52 deficit in half, pulling up on the fast break.

With three-plus minutes left, Siwo hit another 3-pointer to cut the lead to 60-59 and set up a fairly dramatic finish.

After the teams swapped a pair of foul shots, Robert Strickland made a major reappearance for UC. Teetering on the edge of fouling out, he forcefully rejected a Donald Thomas shot that could have put the Rams up three. Instead, Richard Hampton split a pair of free throws to pull UC even at 62.

A Myers missed 3-pointer set the stage for Siwo’s shot, which looks like something a big man would put up from 3 feet. It comes with little warning.

"That’s a typical Siwo shot," Strickland said. "I knew it was good as soon as he let it go."

Strickland, whom coach Greg White recruited at Marshall, took over. He answered two Shepherd free throws with a strong inside basket to keep UC ahead by three, 67-64, with 45 seconds left. Then he came up with the defensive play of the game, his fifth blocked shot of the game and 86th of the season — a swat that resembled a volleyball serve.

"He really has the ability to see the play two passes away," said UC coach Greg White. "He’s great on help-side — he’s not a great shot-blocker out on the ball; he blocks most of his shots off the ball. He comes into the play when the guy’s got his [defender] beat, and that’s what happened there. He just swatted it."

The Rams had one last shot to tie in the final 10 seconds, but Myers missed a tough 3-pointer under pressure. Hampton hit two foul shots and Marquis Brooks added the cherry by stealing an inbounds pass and hitting a 35-footer at the buzzer.

White noted that Strickland was seated during the Rams’ lead-seizing 13-0 run. By the time Myers ended that run with a baseline jumper, the Rams had outscored the Eagles 26-8 — much of it after Strickland’s fourth foul.

"We’re just much better with him on the floor," White said. "He’s an athletic shot-blocker, very aggressive player and we obviously needed him to have a big game and he had one."

Strickland scored 15 points despite getting into foul trouble. One of those fouls came without contact, a technical foul that followed a personal foul with a minute left in the first half.

Earlier in that half, UC threatened to bury Shepherd, Davis & Elkins-style. The Eagles took a 28-13 lead, forcing Tyler to burn through his first three timeouts along the way.

Eric Smith punctuated a 16-2 run with two nasty slam dunks. Smith took an Austin Weatherington lob for a two-handed reverse, then punished Matt Deaner with a windmill throw-down. Alas, Smith’s subsequent "and one" foul shot didn’t reach the rim.

That seemed to sap UC’s momentum, as Shepherd started its 15-4 half-ending surge. Myers, who scored 16 points, canned a 26-footer to pull the Rams within 32-28 at the intermission.

Darren Stackhouse finished his Shepherd career with 19 points and 10 rebounds. It was a heartbreaking end to a tough season for the Rams, who lost two-time second-team all-conference player Danley Shank the entire season.

"It was a heck of a ballgame. I’m disappointed, but I’m very proud of the effort that our guys gave," Tyler said.