GAMEDAY CENTRAL
Embry-Riddle at Southeastern
DATE: Saturday, Feb. 8, 2014
CITY: Lakeland, Fla.
SITE: Southeastern Sportsplex
TIP-OFF: 7 p.m. ET
LIVE STATS: Stretch Internet
LIVE AUDIO: Stretch Internet
LIVE VIDEO: Stretch Internet - SEU Broadcast
ON THE RADIO: WELE 1380 AM
SERIES: ERAU leads, 10-5
LAST MEETING: ERAU 77, SEU 69 • Jan. 15, 2014 - Daytona Beach, Fla.
THE OPENING TIP
• Embry-Riddle and Southeastern will be playing for 16th time in men's basketball.
• The Fire is on a six-game winning streak, including wins over ranked St. Thomas and Northwood
• Southeastern is 12-1 at home in 2013-14.
• Saturday's contest marks ERAU Head Coach Steve Ridder's 828th career game.
THE EAGLES
The Eagles put together a dominant defensive effort on Thursday night against visiting Johnson & Wales, holding the Wildcats to a season-low 43 points and just 31-percent shooting from the floor. DeForest Carter scored a game-high 12 points for the Eagles who won their 10th TSC game for the first time since 2010-11.
Embry-Riddle has done it with defense this season, keeping opponents at 38-percent from the field and 29-percent from the three-point area. The Eagles' force an average of 15.6 turnovers per game and outrebound teams 40-31.
DeForest Carter and Dalton Barnes have paced the Blue and Gold offensively, averaging 15.0 and 13.2 points per game respectively. Carter also leads the conference with 6.2 assists per game while pulling down 4.8 rebounds and recording 2.9 steals.
Last Time Out
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - The sixth-ranked Embry-Riddle Eagles followed up one of their worst defensive outings of the year on Tuesday at Thomas with the best defensive effort of the season at home on Thursday night, holding Johnson & Wales to just 43 points in a decisive 62-43 win. The Eagles (21-4, 10-3) took a 15-point lead into the halftime break and never allowed the Wildcats (12-12, 4-9) within seven in the second period en route to their 21st win of the 2013-14 season.
Embry-Riddle remained in second place in The Sun Conference standings, one game behind St. Thomas (11-2) and tied with Southeastern (10-3), while Northwood (9-3) is a half of a game back.
The Wildcats scored the first eight points of the contest thanks to a three-point play by Ricardo Saurez, a trey from Jumaoke Smith and a jumper in the paint from Ralph Nin. However, the home team responded with an 11-4 run, capped by a Dalton Barnes layup with 12:04 on the clock the cut the deficit to 12-11.
Jason Powell found Daniel Kiesling open in the corner for a triple with 10 minutes left in the first, and the sophomore buried the long range shot to give ERAU its first lead of the night at 16-14. The Eagles, who finished the first period on a 23-5 run got another three-pointer from Kiesling and five straight points from Hudson Cadet to go up 25-19 before Kiesling hit his final three and Barnes made a runner in the paint with six seconds left to account for the 34-19 halftime score.
JWU was able to cut the lead to 36-29 on a Nin layup with 16:33 left in regulation, but the Eagles were able to hold off a major Wildcat run with triples from Reed Ridder and DeForest Carter, as well as some points in the paint from Cadet and Barnes, the latter, giving ERAU a 47-35 cushion with 9:55 on the clock.
Neither team would score for more than four minutes until Mack Scott converted a layup with 5:44 left, but the Eagles outscored the visitors 16-6 over the final five minutes to cement the win.
The Eagles shot 40-percent from the floor and 25-percent from long range, but a 46-36 rebound advantage, 11 second chance points and 12 points off turnovers, combined with a defensive effort that held JWU to just 31-percent field goal shooting was enough for ERAU's 10th Sun Conference win, the most since 2010-11 for Embry-Riddle.
Carter finished with 12 points to lead all scorers while Kiesling was the only other Eagle in double figures with 10 points. Barnes scored eight points and recorded nine boards, three assists and four steals in 32 minutes.
SCOUTING SOUTHEASTERN
Southeastern is on a hot streak as of late, winning six consecutive and owning a 12-1 record at home. The Fire are ranked No. 25 for the first time this year and are tied with Embry-Riddle for second in The Sun Conference.
Dwayne Johnson and Timothy Mitchell lead the way for a Fire team that averages 84.3 points and 41.3 rebounds per game. Johnson (19.3 pgg) anf Mitchell (15.6 ppg, 10.4 rpg) account for nearly 35 points for SEU while Jake Hodges, Amir Royal and Brandon Moore all average at least 10.0 ppg for Southeastern.
THE ERAU-SEU SERIES
Embry-Riddle leads the all-time series 10-5 after January 15th's win in Daytona Beach. The Eagles split with SEU last season with both teams winning on the road.
BY THE NUMBERS
1,218 - Points scored by DeForest Carter, No. 18 on the all-time scoring list
602 - Wins by Head Coach Steve Ridder now in his 25th season with ERAU men's basketball
547 - Career rebounds pulled down by Cesar Pastrana
221 - Conference wins in program history
25 - Seasons under the guidance of Head Coach Steve Ridder
13 - NAIA National Tournament appearances
10 - Sun Conference Tournament titles
8 - Regular season conference championships
6 - The Eagles' current national ranking
1 - NAIA National Championship (2000)
AMONG THE NATION'S BEST
Heading into his 25th season at the helm of the ERAU men's basketball program, Head Coach Steve Ridder ranks fifth on the NAIA Division II men's basketball winningest active coaches listing. Ridder has 602 wins in 25 seasons as the Eagles' head coach. |
Embry-Riddle (21-4, 10-3)
at
Southeastern (19-4, 10-3)
2/8/14 | Lakeland, Fla. - Southeastern Sportsplex | 7 p.m.
(2013-14 Stats)
|
Stats at a Glance |
SEU |
ERAU |
|
Scoring Average |
84.3 |
77.1 |
|
FG Percentage |
.480 (696-1450) |
.482 (663-1375) |
|
3PT FG Percentage |
.346 (123-356) |
.337 (157-466) |
|
FT Percentage |
.660 (424-642) |
.689 (368-534) |
|
Rebounds |
41.3 |
39.8 |
|
Assists |
11.9 |
18.3 |
|
Turnovers |
13.6 |
16.2 |
|
Steals |
7.9 |
8.5 |
|
Related Links |
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• 2013-14 Embry-Riddle Stats |
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• NAIA National Rankings |
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