Friday, February 05, 2010

MACON, Ga. - Jacksonville, owner of a 10-game win streak faces the last A-Sun school to post 10 straight wins, Belmont (in 2007-08), in the A-Sun/CSS Game of the Week at 6:00 p.m. CT on Friday.

The Dolphins have surged from an 0-3 start in league play to claim the top spot in the standings. The two met in Jacksonville last month with the Dolphins claiming an 82-66 victory, thanks to a 23-5 run spanning the final seven minutes of play. Lehmon Colbert led the Dolphins with 19 points and 10 rebounds while Mick Hedgepeth paced Belmont with 16 points off the bench.

Since Belmont defeated Jacksonville in the title game of the 2008 General Shale Brick Atlantic Sun Championship, the Dolphins have taken the next three meetings. With a win on Friday, they can become only the third team since the Bruins joined the league to win four straight against Belmont. Only five teams have even won three straight against the Bruins.

During this three-game streak, Jacksonville pulled out two one-possession victories followed by a 16-point win at home, thanks to a 23-5 run to close out Belmont. In all three games, the Dolphins controlled the glass, outrebounding the Bruins by almost eight per game.

Age meets youth in the backcourt as senior Ben Smith and freshmen Ian Clark lead Jacksonville and Belmont, respectfully, in scoring. Smith has topped double figures in scoring in 17 straight games and leads the conference in scoring, in league play, at 21.1 points per game. Clark, a strong contender for Freshman of the Year, averages 13.9 points per game.

Smith has scored in double figures in 17 straight games. With James Florence’s streak of 42 ending on Monday, and Markeith Cummings' run of 23 straight end on Thursday, Smith owns the third-longest active streak in the conference.

Clark hails from Memphis, the same hometown as one of the top players the league has seen of late, former ETSU star Courtney Pigram. Clark’s freshman year, both overall and in conference play, compares more than favorably with the former A-Sun Player of the Year. Clark scores more, grabs more rebounds, dishes out more assists and shoots at a higher percentage from the field, the 3-point arc and the free-throw line.

Jacksonville enters the week atop the A-Sun standings, but must survive the trip to Nashville to face Belmont and Lipscomb. Prior to beating Belmont in last year’s regular-season finale, to clinch the regular-season title, Jacksonville had lost its last eight games in Nashville vs the two programs (seven regular-season meetings, plus loss to Belmont in A-Sun Championship at Lipscomb). After the Belmont win, Jacksonville beat Lipscomb in an A-Sun semifinal.

Belmont opened the season 7-2. A 2-7 stretch brought the Bruins back to .500. However, the Bruins have responded with four wins in five games. They reverted back to many of the early-season successes during this most recent run, scoring close to 80 points per game while shooting nearly 50 percent and handing out almost 16 assists per game.

Senior Keaton Belcher opened A-Sun play by totaling 40 wins in road wins at Mercer and Kennesaw State. In the following 10 games, he never reached double figures and only twice made more than one 3-point field goal. In his last five games, he has topped double figures and made at least 3-point field goals four times.

Matt Stewart and Sonny Smith will be on the call. For those outside the CSS markets, catch all the action on ASun.TV, ESPN360.com or on ESPN Full Court. In middle Georgia, the game airs on tape delay at 10:00 p.m on Tuesday. In central Florida markets, the game airs live on the Bright House Sports Network on tape delay at noon on Monday.