UNCG victory
Jason Capel changed the approach a bit, shuffled his starting lineup and watched his Appalachian State team pull out a tough 80-78 overtime victory on the road over UNC Greensboro last night.
He went with a starting lineup used twice in a December tournament in Cancun, and it worked.
Donald Sims moved to point guard, Marcus Wright moved into the lineup for his third start of the season and Jeremi Booth moved back into the lineup and made his seventh start. A fourth guard, Omar Carter, was counted on more as an inside presence and Andre Williamson was the only true post player on the floor.
“I wasn’t happy with the play we were having,” Capel said. “Not to single guys out, but we needed to score the ball. I thought going small gave us a better opportunity to score. I thought we could spread things out, have better driving lines and teams wouldn’t be able to lock out on Donald and Omar so much. I thought Jeremi did a good job of driving it. I thought we could get one-on-one in the post, or not put so much pressure on our post guys to score with their back to the basket. They could score now getting the drop off because the floor was spread.
“Defensively, I just wanted to put the pressure on the guards to rebound. Our last game, our front line had four rebounds, total. We’ve had trouble rebounding so, OK, let’s put it on someone else to rebound. And we responded.”
Carter wound up with 26 points and 12 rebounds. Sims totaled 23 points and five assists. Booth scored 13. Williamson grabbed nine rebounds.
And the two displaced starters – point guard Mitch Woods, and post player Petey Hausley – both responded off the bench. Woods wound up with six rebounds and four assists, and Hausley scored nine points in 17 minutes of play.
Carter and Sims remained the catalysts – “I joke and say that I’ve asked Omar and Donald to do everything this year but sweep up the floor before and after the game,” Capel said – but got support from a variety of sources. And putting Carter in a bit different position, despite giving up height defensively, paid off.
“Omar had a great game,” Capel said. “He had 26 and 12, guarding a bigger position. He was 6 for 6 from the line. He’s a tough cover when he doesn’t settle. He didn’t settle. He drove the ball, he got us in the bonus. Everyone, driving the ball, got us in the bonus and we made free throws.”