Just as the Stags had taken a comfortable lead in their second-round matchup against Missouri (Joe DeSantis, color analyst on WVOF, said it was their best "seven minutes of five-on-five I've seen all year"), the Tigers athleticism and talent brings them back into the game.
At one point, Fairfield held a five-point lead with only seven minutes left in the first. At the moment, Missouri has stormed ahead, and leads 40-29 at the half. For Fairfield, Herbie Allen leads the way with (#) points. The Stags went into a drought offensively, and scored a meager one basket in the last six minutes of the half.
In many ways, it was a tale of two halves within a half - the Stags did really look dominant early on.
The turning point seemed to be when Mizzou pushed a full-court press (Herbie played sparingly due to foul trouble, putting pressure on Fairfield's younger guards) and turned into a zone on defense - forcing Fairfield to take threes instead of penetrating inside (which they did early and often in their hot streak to start the game). How Fairfield will adjust at half will be interesting?
Stay tuned.
Stat of the Half: Fairfield was outrebounded 22-15 in the first half. Ouch. And I won't even go into Mizzou's offensive rebound numbers...
No comments:
Post a Comment