PHILLIP OCHS / THE EAGLE
Forward Stephen Lumpkins led AU in scoring with 23 points in the losing effort. The Eagles have lost four straight games. AU rallied in the second half but were unable to make up the lost ground.
Freshman Mike Bersch drained a late three-pointer capping a 15-6 AU run, Bender Arena erupted and the improbable 22-point comeback suddenly became probable. Unfortunately, a late string of free-throws from Florida Atlantic University held-off the strong AU surge as the men’s basketball team lost 81-69.
Eagles forward Stephen Lumpkins continued his remarkable sophomore campaign with a career-high 23 points and nine rebounds, shooting 64 percent from the field. Freshman speedster Blake Jolivette tripled his season average with 13 points and four assists. Bersch knocked down a pair of clutch three-pointers and finished with 10 points for the Eagles. Sanchez Hughley led Florida Atlantic with 15 points.
Both teams came out looking extremely sloppy in the first half. Lumpkins was the only Eagle on the scoreboard in the first eight minutes of the game. Only 15 total points were scored between both teams in that time span. The Owls eventually surfaced to score 36 points in the first half. AU never seemed to get it going. The Eagles entered halftime trailing 36-20, shooting 0-4 from beyond the arc and a pitiful 26 percent overall.
“When you don’t score points, you have to be able to grind it out on the defensive end,” said Assistant Coach Robert Burke. “We did that for a little bit, but then it got away from us. We just couldn’t seem to get our feet under us, and they did.”
AU returned from the locker room with a different mentality but similar play on the court, and quickly found themselves in a 23-point hole. However, energetic plays from Bersch, junior Nick Hendra and senior guard Matthew Wilson slowly helped AU chip away at the deficit. With fans sporting “The Lumpkin Patch” shirts in the crowd, Lumpkins found his groove and scored seven points in a span of two minutes. But the main ingredient to the comeback was the play of Jolivette, whose contagious energy on both ends of the court sparked the Eagles down the stretch.
“As a freshman, it’s hard to get in the swing of things,” Jolivette said. “My coaches have gotten more confident in me as a player and they’re allowing me to be free to attack a bit more and play my game, and so I’m just getting more comfortable with the offense.”
All of the momentum came to a halt after an AU timeout with 1:41 remaining. Seven Florida Atlantic free-throws and a pair of steals that turned into layups stretched out the margin in the final minutes to give AU a 12-point loss. On the bright side, AU shot 50 percent in the second half and held a very favorable margin in points off the bench.
The Eagles look to secure its first win on the season at home tonight against the Fairfield Stags, with tip-off at 7:30 p.m. While Burke said that many facets of the team need improvement in order to bounce back against the Stags, Jolivette’s key to victory is much simpler.
“As a team, we just need to come out aggressive from the start and play 40 minutes of intense basketball.”
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7 Comments
John
Nov 22 at 11:18 PM
Why do we even have a basketball team? Our money would be better spent if we reallocated the money used by the basketball team.
Perhaps we could spend the money on getting better professors or facilities? Regardless, why are we paying for a losing team? I’m sure my high school basketball team can defeat AU easily.
Yes, AU sucks that much.
Eagle1
Nov 23 at 12:38 AM
John,
We have a basketball team because unlike most Division 1 institutions, we field real scholar-athletes. Very few D1 schools have basketball teams that average 3.0 GPAs like ours does. Moreover, when they do well they bring a lot of press - and consequently money and prestige, to the school, like they did the last two seasons. Unfortunately every sports team in the world has to go through a rebuilding year every now and then, which is what we’re doing now. Almost all college athletic programs (more than 90%) cost money to run. No, your high school basketball team would not win. Yes, some of us actually like basketball. So please, learn a little about athletics, maybe even read the University’s 2010-2011 budget and see how much is being spent on faculty salaries vs. athletics (a hell of a lot more goes to professors) before you unduly criticize. College is supposed to teach you to think critically, why don’t you start doing so?
Eagle1
Nov 23 at 12:42 AM
John,
I’m responding again because I’ve got to say, it’s not even that I disagree with you that bugs me, it’s because you’re so grossly misinformed and there’s always the risk that someone might take you seriously. You cannot expect a team to win 100% of the time. They’ve lost four games. Last season, we had the second-longest winning streak in the country going into the NCAA tournament. Really, use your head. If AU was to use that money for anything else, I’d hope it would be for scholarships to attract better students than you.
Who? JEFF JONES
Nov 23 at 1:13 AM
John,
Has your head been in the sand during March the past two years?
Tom Schad
Nov 23 at 1:31 AM
Sorry, I neglected to mention in the article that AU lost SEVEN seniors from last year (including all of the starters) and currently fields the 5th youngest team in the NCAA. What you see as “sucking”, some may see as a growth spurt. High school and NCAA D-I are two very different levels of competition, and it takes time to adjust. I’d just advise you to take all aspects into consideration before bashing our guys - despite the loss, they took some huge strides on Saturday.
AU BBall
Nov 23 at 1:55 AM
In case you haven’t realized, the AU basketball team made it to the NCAA tournament the last two seasons, so we haven’t exactly paid for a losing team.
Vi
Nov 23 at 11:38 PM
Don’t care about sports, but John is dumb and/or frosh. It would be nice if people on here thought about what they were going to write before they wrote it.
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