Walk The Line
How does a team shoot 1-11 (9.1%) from deep, while their three best players combine for an 8-30 (27%) shooting night, including 0-9 deep win? Defense and free throws...and having a career game from a big man doesn't hurt either.
Albany limited Vermont's best weapon, holding the Catamount's to 6-24 (25%) from deep. Vermont came into the game shooting a league best 37.6% from three so far this season.
While Albany struggled from the field themselves in the 2nd half shooting 10-29 (34.5%); they made 5 more free throw's than field goals, going 15-19 from the line (78.9%).
The Great Danes were led at the line by Evan Singletary (6-6), Joe Cremo (7-8) and Mike Rowley (4-5). Their 76.9 free throw percentage was over 4 points better than their percentage from the charity stripe entering the contest.
Window Washers
The Great Danes would out-rebound Vermont 41-32 including 13-8 on the offensive end. Greig Stire would pull in 5 offensive rebounds to lead Albany, while Richard Peters contributed 4 of his own.
The Albany offensive boards would lead to a 9-2 advantage over Vermont in second chance points. Albany's rebounding advantage coming into the contest; combined with Vermont's poor shooting was more than enough to doom the Catamounts.
The Not So Little Brother
Mike Rowley would carry the Albany offense in a road game, against a tough opponent, in which his team was struggling from the field. Sam Rowley is no longer around for Albany and coach Will Brown to rely on, but Mike did his best impersonation of his older brother in this contest.
Rowley would use an array of post moves on the interior, while shooting 10 percentage points higher than his season average from the free throw line. His 18 points tied Vermont's Kurt Steidl for the game high, while his 11 rebounds led all players.
Final Thoughts
It's pretty amazing how Albany continues to win games in which the players they were supposed to rely on offensively struggle on that end. The improvement of the Albany interior pieces from last season to this makes them much more complete of a team than one would have thought going into the season.
Even on poor shooting nights Peter Hooley (3 assists), Ray Sanders (5 steals) and Evan Singletary (5 rebounds) find ways to contribute to a win. Enough can't be said about the perimeter defense as the entire team fought through screens, limiting Vermont's clean looks from deep.
As an Albany fan one can look at games like these two ways. Road wins against tough opponents are hard to come by...especially when your stars struggle offensively. When your defense and "role" players can carry the team to victory that's certainly something to be happy about.
In my opinion we haven't come close to seeing what the 2015-16 squad is capable of. There have been offensive struggles which weren't there in the past, and the Great Danes just keep on winning.
While the shooting stats have been troubling some games, and it's understandable for some fans to gripe... remember only one thing matters..."Just win baby".
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