Rams upset Pilots, 93-72
December 14, 2005
Fort Worth, TX---The Texas Wesleyan Rams entered Tuesday night’s game against the No.3 LSUS Pilots looking to spoil the Pilots undefeated season and avoid being swept by the Pilots who defeated the Rams 85-78 at home in early November. The Rams used 21 second half points by point guard Ben Hunt and connected on 14-25 (56%) attempts from beyond the three-point line en route to a 93-72 upset over the Pilots.
“LSUS is the best team we have played all year and we knew we were going to have a battle on our hands tonight. We prepared all week and were as prepared as we could possibly be and executed the game plan very well,” commented Rams Head Coach Terry Waldrop who saw his team reach the .500 mark at 4-4 on the season.
The Pilots led 20-16 with 12:00 remaining in the first which proved to be their biggest lead of the contest before the Rams answered with a 11-2 run to take a 27-22 lead at the 9:02 mark.
The Rams stretched their lead to 39-31 with 1:00 remaining in the half but allowed a late 4-0 run which cut the Pilot deficit to 39-35 at halftime.
Josh Porter connected on a three-point field goal to open the second half which pulled the Pilots within one, but the Rams responded with a 19-9 run which was capped by 1-of-5 second half three-pointers from Hunt and led 58-44 with 12:12 remaining in the half.
Porter added three of his game high 24-points with 10:40 remaining to cut the Rams lead to 60-52, but that would be as close as the Pilots get on this night as the Rams connected on 18-of-27 (67%) field goal attempts to outscore the Pilots 54-37 in the second half to hand the Pilots their first loss of the season.
“They deserve all the credit in the world. We were out-shot, out-rebounded, and for the most part, out-worked tonight by a very good Texas Wesleyan team,” commented Pilots Head Coach Chad McDowell.
After a 0-of-3 shooting performance in the first half, Hunt connected on 8-of-10 field goal attempts and collected 21 second half points to lead the Rams offense.
“Ben did not play in the first half of our last game and has responded very well to the challenge. He stepped up big in the second half for the second straight game which is a good sign for us,” said Waldrop.
“I felt that the key to our first game at LSUS was that we ran out of gas at the end of the second half because our guys played 37-38 minutes. Tonight we used our bench and they allowed us to keep up with the tempo LSUS likes to play at which I felt was the difference tonight,” concluded Waldrop.
The Rams Nino Etienne collected 14-points and a game high 15-rebounds while Brad Schilder added 17-points, and Scott Reasoner finished one rebound shy of a double-double with 15-points and 9-rebounds.
The Rams managed to hold Pilots leading scorer Fredericko Payne to just 11-points after being scorched for 33-points by Payne in the team’s first contest of the season. Jeremy Johnson finished with 19-points while the Pilots post tandem of Anton Palmer and Shadrach Roome combined for 16-points and 11-rebounds.
“There are going to be highs and lows throughout every season. We need to use this as motivation to prepare for our upcoming conference season and move on,” concluded McDowell.
The Pilots will return to action Wednesday night in Natchitoches when they will square off against the Northwestern State University in exhibition action. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:45pm.
