Williams, ETSU Edge North Georgia

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – Micah Williams stood at the free-throw line, hoping to give his ETSU squad some breathing room from the tenacious North Georgia Saints, who trailed by only two points with six seconds left. Williams, having already missed his first attempt, let the second one go and clanged it off the front of the rim.

The junior forward then sprung between four North Georgia defenders to collect the rebound, and put the game out of reach with an uncontested reverse layup.

Williams’ late-game heroics helped the Bucs snap a two-game losing streak as they slipped past the Division II Saints 75-71 Thursday night at Brooks Gym in Johnson City, Tenn.

“I’m really proud of myself,” Williams said. “The ball came off the rim kind of funny, but I guess the rest of it was instinct.”

With the win, ETSU (5-5, 0-1 A-Sun) took its first game since a Nov. 29 victory over North Florida. Since the UNF game, the Bucs had been on a two-game skid with losses to No. 11-ranked Tennessee and Alabama-Birmingham. Despite the win, ETSU head coach Murry Bartow said he expected more from his team.

“I’m glad that we won, but not very happy with the way we played,” Bartow said. “North Georgia fought hard, but the fortunate thing is that Micah was able to make a big, big play at the end to win the game.”

Despite tallying 11 steals and forcing ETSU into 21 turnovers, North Georgia dropped to 3-4 on the season. Saints head coach Chris Faulkner said that his team missed their chance to walk away with the win.

“We had a lot of opportunities down the stretch,” Faulkner said. “We probably could’ve played a little bit smarter. We just had a mental lapse.”

Mental lapse or no, North Georgia had four players reach double-digit figures in scoring. Senior center Andrew Bennett tallied 14, while freshman forward Pat Moynihan added 10.
Seniors Bernard Rimmer and Carl Taylor each scored 15 to lead the Saints in scoring. Rimmer also pulled down 12 rebounds for a double-double.

For the Bucs, junior forward Tommy Hubbard recorded his sixth double-double of the season with 14 points and 11 rebounds, and junior guard Justin Tubbs chipped in 16 points.
Williams led the way for the Buccaneers with career highs in both points (22) and rebounds (10), en route to his first career double-double.

“All the coaches tell me every day to stay aggressive on offense,” Williams said. “Any time it’s a close game, it’s all about making plays at the end, and thank God I came out aggressive.”

The Bucs looked aggressive right at tipoff, when Hubbard managed to recover the ball underneath the Saints’ goal for an easy layup three seconds into the game. From there,
however, neither team was able to establish any momentum. After missing its first four shots, North Georgia got on the board with 17:29 left in the half when Bennett slipped past defenders for a layup.

Both teams traded baskets and leads until North Georgia pulled away with a 14-4 run in four minutes to secure a 27-20 lead. ETSU then responded with a 13-4 run to close out the half with the lead, 33-31.

During halftime, Bartow decided to sit three of his starters to open the second half. It was then that Williams, who only scored two points in the first half, was put into the lineup.

“There’s no rotation right now,” Bartow said. “I want seven or eight guys to play well, but right now we don’t have that. We need to find the rotation quickly.”

Despite Bartow’s adjustments, North Georgia managed to hold ETSU to its three-point lead over the first five minutes of the second half.

The Saints suffered a serious loss, however, when Taylor, who had already notched his 15 points, collided with Hubbard under the basket and injured his mouth. After being attended by medical staff, he was held out for the rest of the game.

“That hurt us a lot,” Faulkner said. “They started running zones toward the end of the second half, and we had a tough time cracking that without one of our better perimeter players on the bench.”

After Taylor’s departure, Williams scored six points to spark a 10-2 run over the next 4:34 to build the Bucs’ lead to 52-41. ETSU built its lead to 14 (67-53) with 2:56 left to play, but North Georgia rallied to pull within five (68-63) at the 0:59 mark.

Then, Saints forward Keldrick Coleman coupled a personal foul with a technical foul, giving ETSU four free throws to extend the lead to 72-63 with 0:52 left in the game.

Coleman tried to amend his mistake by scoring five points of North Georgia’s 8-1 run in the next 32 seconds to put the score at 73-71 with ten seconds left.

Out of timeouts, the Saints fouled Williams with six seconds left to play. After missing both free throws, Williams grabbed his 10th rebound of the game for the easy lay-in.

North Georgia returns home to Dahlonega, Ga., for its next game against Anderson University on Dec. 15. Tip is set for 7 p.m.

The Bucs will look to regain a winning record when they host Murray State inside Memorial Center on Saturday at 4 p.m.