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St. Andrews hoops downs Flying Fleet on 'Senior Day'
February 23, 2008 Junior Joseph Gripper (Charlotte, N.C.) had a team-high 16 points helping the Knights (6-20 Overall; 5-14 Conference Carolinas) snap a eight-game losing streak. Sophomore Brandon Wright (Goose Creek, S.C.), who is tied for second in the league in scoring with 17 points per game, had a game-high 17 points for the Flying Fleet (6-19, 2-16). Before today’s four-point victory, St. Andrews third year head coach Billy Lee recognized his four seniors including Bradley Hippolyte (Brooklyn, N.Y.), Benny Zacharias (Raeford, N.C.), Marcus Hoke (Charlotte, N.C.), and Jeff Worley (Charlotte, N.C.). St. Andrews held a seven-point lead, 32-25, after a Worley lay-up with just under four minutes left in the first half but Erskine finished the half with a 7-0 run that included a put-back and three-pointer by sophomore Matt Herring (Greenwood, S.C.) to tied the game up at the intermission (32-32). The second half remained close for the whole 20 minutes with neither team taking a lead by more than six points. The game featured 11 lead changes and eight ties. The Flying Fleet relied on the three-pointer taking 35 attempts from behind the arc. However, Erskine only converted on 10 tries from three-point distance (28.6%), including five treys by Wright. SAPC made 21-of-45 (46.7%) field goal attempts and 11-of-14 (78.6%) free throws while Erskine made 39.2% of its shots from the floor. Hoke, Hippolyte, and Deas all had three rebounds as St. Andrews dominated the glass, 33-23. The Knights had a 16-5 edge on second effort points scoring 16 points on nine offensive rebounds. Gripper led the Knights offensively with 16 points. Hippolyte drained 14 points; Hoke bucketed 12 points; and Deas tallied eight points. Gripper and Hoke each drilled three 3-pointers. Worley handed out a team-high five assists while Phillips dished out four. Wright scored 15 of his 17 points on five made three-pointers while Herring and freshman Nick Riley (Stone Mountain, Ga.) each totaled 13 points. Senior TJ Taylor (Gastonia, N.C.) had a game-high nine assists. St. Andrews will play its final regular season game on Tuesday night when the Knights host Conference Carolinas foe and No. 8 East Region ranked Barton College at 7:30 p.m. Erskine hosts league rival Queens University of Charlotte at the same time Tuesday. |
Hoke, who assisted on Deas’ go-ahead lay-up, drilled a clutch three-pointer with less than two minutes left in regulation to tie the game up at 56-56. Junior Joseph Gripper (Charlotte, N.C.) then made a critical steal on Erskine’s next possession setting up Deas’ big basket with 32 seconds to go. The Fleet’s potential tying shot with five seconds left just missed and junior Charles Phillips (Decatur, Ga.) pulled down the defensive rebound. Erskine was then forced to foul three times to get St. Andrews in the bonus. Deas sealed the victory by making both end of a one-and-one trip to the free throw line with 1.0 second showing on the clock.