Army West Point Athletics
Army West Point
3-0
St. Francis Brooklyn
0-2
Men's Basketball Fends Off St. Francis Brooklyn
November 19, 2014 | Men's Basketball
Three players scored in double figures with Kyle Wilson's 18, Tanner Plomb's 17 and Kevin Ferguson's 15. Plomb and Tanner Omlid led the team with seven rebounds apiece, while Omlid contributed three steals and two blocked shots. Dylan Cox scored six points and handed out five assists and Max Lenox added seven points off the bench.
Both teams shot an identical 44.1 percent from the floor and Army forced St. Francis into 20 turnovers. The Black Knights gave it away 16 times and were outrebounded 40-35. Jalen Cannon paced St. Francis with a double-double of 15 points and 10 rebounds in the losing effort.
"The three wins going into the next game really don't mean too much," head coach Zack Spiker said. "Every game is a 40 minute evaluation of where we are. We weren't at our best tonight and everyone in that locker room knows that, so we will come back to practice with a focus to get better."
Both teams struggled to find their rhythm through the midpoint of the opening half and St. Francis went up 18-10 on Antonio Jenifer's wing three. Plomb's baseline drive and two-handed slam ignited a 9-0 stretch for Army that gave it a 19-18 edge with a little more than seven minutes to play in the period. The run included a Ferguson layup and transition buckets by Plomb (3) plus a Lenox layup.
The Terriers led by four point on two different occasions, but Army closed out the final two minutes on a 7-2 run that sent them into the break ahead 35-34. Ferguson had 11 at the intermission, supported by a three-point play on Army's final possession.
The Black Knights made five of their first six shots, with four points coming from Cox, to start the second half and built a 45-42 advantage at the first media timeout.
Army was up 50-44 following a transition three by Wilson off a feed from Plomb, but St. Francis made its way back with five straight from Cannon on the inside to pull St. Francis within a point (12:36).
Leading 52-51, Army scored seven straight points to force St. Francis to call timeout with 9:46 to play. The run started with Plomb's strong drive and old-fashioned three-point play. Larry Toomey's offensive rebound and putback made it 57-51 before an Omlid steal and feed to Cox for a transition two forced another timeout with less than ten minutes left.
Out of the timeout Cannon slammed home a putback to interrupt the run, before Wilson buried a corner trey in a frantic sequence, Lenox fed Mo Williams on a backdoor cut and then scored two of his own on a right-handed drive.
Leading 72-60 with 4:22 on the clock, the home team scored the next 11 points to pull within a point on Cannon's free throw with 1:55 remaining. Army went to the line twice over the final two minutes with Wilson and Plomb each hitting 1-of-2 to set up the game's final possession. Trailing 74-71, Brent Jones took an off-balance three-pointer with four seconds left, but the tying attempt missed and Army held on for the three-point win.
"I thought our defense was really good late in the game, Spiker added. "The issue was our shot selection and ability to hold onto the basketball. It's tough to get a stop on a two-on-one fastbreak or a run out. If we eliminate those, I think the margin is much different and the shooting percentage they have goes down a great deal. I thought when we were set defensively we were pretty good."
Army turns its attention to Saturday night when it travels north to take on Marist in Poughkeepsie N.Y., at 7 p.m.
Game Notes:
The win marks Army's fourth straight over St. Francis Brooklyn and is Army's first 3-0 start since the 2001-02 campaign.
Army is 3-0 to start the season for the first time versus current Division I opponents since Bob Knight's team opened the 1968-69 season with consecutive wins over Lehigh, Cornell and Temple.
Army improved to 10-6 all-time against the Terriers.
Army remains one of two Patriot League teams without a loss. Holy Cross (2-0) defeated Brown on Wednesday by a final score of 80-65.
The Black Knights have used the same starting lineup in all three games this season with Dylan Cox, Kyle Wilson, Tanner Plomb, Larry Toomey and Kevin Ferguson on the floor first.
