Monday, February 19, 2007

This Week in A-Sun Men's Basketball

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A-Sun Game of the Week

Thursday, February 22
Stetson at ETSU
Memorial Center
Johnson City, Tenn.
7:00pm

ETSU takes aim at clinching the top seed in next week’s General Shale Brick Atlantic Sun Championship when they host Stetson in the A-Sun/CSS Game of the Week on Thursday night. The Bucs will take the out-right regular season title with a win in front of the their home crowd. Stetson has won three straight games behind the play of senior Gabe McMillen and will try to build on that momentum heading into the postseason.

A-Sun Notables

ETSU CLAIMS SHARE of A-SUN TITLE
With a come-from-behind 75-71 win at Kennesaw State, ETSU improved to 20-8 overall, 14-2 in Atlantic Sun action, and more importantly wrapped up at least a share of the A-Sun regular season title. The Bucs will attempt to wrap up the outright title and the No. 1 seed in the General Shale Brick Atlantic Sun Conference Championship with a home win against either Stetson (2/22) or Mercer (2/24). A loss by Belmont at Jacksonville or UNF would also seal up the top seed.

PIGRAM ADDS to RESUME
Sophomore Courtney Pigram continues his breakout season for ETSU. The guard scored 19 of his game-high 23 points in the second half to help the Bucs claim at least a share of the A-Sun title on Saturday night. Pigram is averaging 17.0 points per game and leads the A-Sun in three-pointers per game, draining an average of 2.75 every time out.

WICKE for THREE
Andy Wicke of Belmont, another sophomore guard, put on a three-point shooting clinic in the Bruins’ 87-55 win over Gardner-Webb. The Hendersonville, Tenn., native drilled 10 three’s on 12 attempts and finished with 31 points. The 10 triples set a Curb Event Center record and fell just one shy of matching the A-Sun record of 11 shared by Wicke’s current teammate Josh Goodwin (at ETSU - Dec. 1, 2005)?and FAU’s Earnest Crumbley (vs Campbell - Feb. 26, 2004).

YOUTH MOVEMENT
Mercer’s James Florence leads the A-Sun in scoring and joins Texas superstar Kevin Durant as the only freshmen to pace their conference. The guard is second behind Durant among freshmen scorers in the NCAA. Campbell’s Jonathan Rodriguez ranks seventh in the nation among freshman scoring leaders. Add to that four JU freshmen who are averaging at least seven points per game and young talent is abundant in the A-Sun.

EACKLES SWIPES ANOTHER ONE
During the second half of Saturday’s game at Belmont, Campbell senior guard Ledell Eackles broke the school single-season record of 77 steals set by Brad Childress in 1988-89. Eackles, who ranks fourth nationally in steals at 3.0 per game, finished with seven thefts and now has 82 on the year.

2007 GENERAL SHALE ATLANTIC SUN CHAMPIONSHIP
For the fourth straight year, the league’s representative in the NCAA will be determined in the Volunteer State as ETSU hosts the 2007 General Shale Brick A-Sun Championship. Only two current members own tournament titles: Belmont (2006) and Mercer (1981 & 1985). UCF was the last team to successfully defend their tournament title, winning both the 2004 and 2005 championships. The A-Sun Championship will be a three-day, single-elimination tournament. Kennesaw State and North Florida are ineligible for the men’s basketball championship until 2009-10. The remaining eight teams will be seeded according to conference winning percentage.

A-Sun Standings

A-Sun Players of the Week

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League Leaders

Team-by-Team Notes