Box Score Box score
DUE WEST, S.C. - The Anderson men's basketball team opened the
second half by exploding on a 17-2 run, but was unable to hold off
a late rally as the Trojans fell, 68-62, to archrival Erskine,
Saturday night at Belk Arena.
Anderson slipped to 1-3 as the Trojans wrapped up their
season-opening road swing by suffering their third straight
setback. Erskine (2-1) claimed its second win of the young season
and its first win over AU since defeating the Trojans, 87-72, in
AU's 2012-13 season-opener at the Abney Athletic Center.
The Trojans pulled down a season-high 23 offensive rebounds that
led to 20 second-chance points, but that was offset by a
season-high 19 turnovers that tuned into 24 points for the Flying
Fleet.
Despite being hampered by early foul trouble, freshman guard
Randall Shaw led the Trojans with 20 points on the strength of
9-of-12 shooting from the free throw line. Redshirt freshman
Marquez Fisher came off the bench to post his first career
double-double with 12 points and a game-high 10 rebounds in just 20
minutes of action. Sophomore guard Tre' Fields added nine points,
while sophomore guard Alex Griesen posted a career-best seven
points and seven rebounds in his first career start. Junior center
Rakish Taylor tallied nine rebounds.
Junior guard Joby Glymph led all players in double figures with
22 points, with Brannon Dark adding 13 points and Ray Lock with
12.
Shaw scored Anderson's first eight points of the contest, as the
6-foot-3 guard drained a pair of free throws in the game's opening
minute to start the scoring and followed less than two minutes
later with his first 3-pointer of the game to give the Black and
Gold a quick 5-0 lead. But the Flying Fleet countered with seven
unanswered points to take a two-point edge with 15:41 on the clock,
before Shaw drained his second trey to regain the lead for the
Trojans.
After Erskine's Glymph dropped in a free throw to give the Fleet
a 10-8 advantage, the Trojans scored eight unanswered points to
take a six-point lead, at 16-10, with Greisen dropping in all five
of his first-half points to fuel the run. The Fleet trimmed AU's
advantage to 16-15 midway through the opening half, before Lex
Davis connected on his first 3-pointer of the night from the top of
the circle less than four minutes later to cap a 7-1 surge and give
Anderson its largest advantage of the half, at 23-16, at the 6:34
mark.
But the Fleet responded by chipping away and knotted the score
at 28 apiece on Dark's third field goal of the frame with just more
than a minute left in the first half. Neither team was able to
score over the final minute, as they went to the break with the
score tied for the first time of the contest.
Lock connected on a jumper to open the second half, but Shaw's
traditional three-point play with 18:27 remaining triggered a 17-0
outburst by the Trojans that encompassed the next four minutes.
Taylor helped fuel the run with four points, while Shaw added
another five points and Fields capped the surge with another
3-pointer to boost AU's lead to 45-30 with 14:26 left.
Erskine then got hot from beyond the arc, as sophomore Thomas Nolan
and Glymph connected on back-to-back treys to spark a 13-2 run by
the Fleet over the next four-plus minutes. After Erskine trimmed
the AU advantage to just 52-51 with less than seven minutes to
play, the Trojans responded by rebuilding a six-point cushion on
another 3-pointer by Fields.
But the trey proved to be the final field goal of the contest by
the Black and Gold, as the Trojans misfired on their last five
field goal attempts over the final 4:41. Erskine chipped away at
the AU lead, with Nolan's second 3-pointer of the night giving the
Fleet a 64-61 advantage. Following a pair of free throws from
Glymph, Taylor dropped in a free throw to pull AU within 66-62 with
18 seconds remaining, while EC's Justin Shelton added two from the
line to set the final score.
The Trojans will play their fifth game in 11 days on Tuesday,
when they welcome Mars Hill to the Abney Center. The contest marks
AU's home opener as well as its conference-opener, with tip-off
versus the Lions slated for 8 p.m.