The Hornets came out gang busters on defense. Alpha blocked a few shots early and we made some steals that really got us going. We weren't hitting our outside jumpers early on, but we were making our inside shots and that's how we started pulling away early. Later, we hit both inside and outside.
We may have gotten the lead up to 18 points or so just before the middle point of the 2nd half. Dickson was very aggressive and playing well and I was wondering why he wasn't playing and I didn't see him anywhere for several minutes (maybe he still has the flu & he must've gone to the locker room) and didn't return until 7 1/2 to go. Idaho St was beginning to make their run then. Alpha got his 4th foul and then Dickson picked up 2 more for his fourth, so we were in trouble. Hoffman wanted a breather, but Katz made him stay in cuz Carbajal wasn't playing well.
The Bengals had the momentum with under 4 to go and it didn't look good. They had really stepped up their "D" and they were back in it. We led 61 to 55 and they had the ball and there was a wild scramble right in front of their bench with under 3 to go or so and no foul was called on us and we got the ball back and as one of the ref's passed in front of their bench, a younger Idaho St coach yelled something and the ref teed him up immediately. That coach knew he really screwed up and put his head in his hands. But their head coach, O'Brien, who has a bad temper, walked onto the court and got a "T", then he shoved an official and then another assistant had to be held back from grabbing a ref. They had to get security out there to protect the ref's. They gave O'Brien another "T" and kicked him out. That incident probably saved us, but Toles Bey, who wasn't playing very well again, made only 3 of 6 free throws.
You'd think we would've had it in the bag then, but we didn't. We were tired and had no real offense going except for making free throws and they got right back in it. Jackson threw two of those soft passes he makes, just like when he shoots frees, and they intercepted both of them, then Hoffman fouled a guy taking a three and the guy made all three. Then, Jackson fouled a guy in back court. We were fouling them with under a minute to go and we had the lead! Unbelievable. Katz was going nuts! Finally, we got the ball to Hoffman and he hit six frees in a row and it kept them at bay. We may have lost the game if not for their coaches, but we'll take it. We deserved to win.
Regarding McCarver, he got tripped by one of their guards on the way back up the court and he fell hard. When he caught back up to that guard, he cussed at him, a ref heard it, and teed him up. Katz pulled McCarver immediately. This occurred when the Bengals were really making their run and it was a mistake we couldn't afford. He put Alpha back in then and pulled McCarver, but Alpha had to back off his "D" cuz he had 4 fouls. It was nerve wracking again, but that's probably the only way we're going to win 'em. Bring on the Vikings!
