Sunday, November 23, 2008

UAlbany survives

Thanks to my colleague Will Montgomery for covering the UAlbany game tonight.

He returned saying it was a good one that the Great Danes had the handle on the game, but then had to win down the stretch, which to me sounded like the Bryant game.

Here's what he had to say about tonight's game...

The fans at SEFCU Arena saw a great basketball game on Saturday night, but the Great Danes should have put it away early on in the second half.

Albany jumped out to a 49-31 lead with 15:39 to go in the second half, but Central Connecticut came crawling right back. The Blue Devils, who were 0-of-9 from three-point range in the first 30 minutes of the game, but hit three in a row and that tied the score at 57.

But UAlbany's Tim Ambrose went from goat to hero very quickly after he missed what would have been the go-ahead layup with nine seconds left.

The Blue Devils received the ball thanks to the possession arrow on a scrum following the Ambrose miss, but Central Connecticut’s Robby Ptacek inexplicably stepped out of bounds upon receiving the ball, giving Ambrose another shot.

With three seconds remaining, Ambrose slashed his way to the rim and sunk the retribution shot. The fans in SEFCU Arena erupted as the Great Danes claimed a 68-67 non-league victory in Albany’s 2008-09 home opener.

"I just wanted to get inbounds, get aggressive and get to the basket," Ambrose said.

Ambrose’s heroics aside, the Albany pressure that forced the Blue Devils turnover which was the game’s crucial play.

The Great Danes still sent the raucous crowd of 3,241 away feeling happy, even if it was a little too close for UAlbany coach Will Brown’s liking.

"We wanted to make sure the fans in the seats came back for the next one," he said. "We made it interesting."

From the looks of it, it sure is going to be an interesting season for the Danes, as they try to slim the rotation down to seven or eight players. Albany had eight players play at least 12 minutes, and three other players hit the floor for at least seven, a stat Will Brown mentioned in the press conference after the game.

The two biggest signs for Albany fans from Saturday's game: Ambrose sure looks like he's going to be the guy taking the big shots for UAlbany this year and Will Harris is going to be an explosive player when he's fully healthy.

Labels: , , ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home