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EAGLES, PIRATES ADVANCE AT UVI

Nov. 23, 2003 — The Boston College Eagles beat the Appalachian State Mountaineers 92-67, and the Hampton University Pirates emerged victorious over the La Salle University Explorers 68-64 Saturday night at the 2003 Paradise Jam men’s tournament at the University of the Virgin Islands Sports and Fitness Center.
The Eagles cruised to victory over the Mountaineers in the first game of the night. They never trailed by more than two points and that was early in the first half, when the score was 8-6 in favor of the Mountaineers.
The Eagles completely dominated the low post, outscoring the Mountaineers 26-14 in the paint in the first half and 42-28 for the game. The Eagles made a 21-6 run to take a 27-14 lead with 5:06 left in the half. The Eagles never trailed nor were seriously challenged again.
Eagles head coach Al Skinner started substituting all of his players with more than eight minutes remaining in the game with his team sitting on a 21-point lead. Even with the reserves in the game, the Mountaineers could not do anything offensively to cut into the deficit.
The Eagles shot a blistering 61 percent, 35-of-57, from the field, while the Mountaineers shot 34 percent, 26-of-76.
The Eagles had five players in double figures offensively. Uka Agbai scored 21 points and grabbed seven rebounds. Craig Smith and Steve Hailey had 12 and 11 points respectively. Louis Hinnant and Jermaine Watson each added 10 points apiece. Jared Dudley joined Agbai in grabbing a team-high seven rebounds. Smith plucked six rebounds.
Derek Thomas had a double-double as he scored 18 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to lead the Mountaineers. Noah Brown had 11 points for Appalachian State.
It was not easy, but the Pirates beat the Explorers in the nightcap. Even though the Pirates never trailed in the second half, they had to hold off a late offensive attack from the Explorers.
The Pirates led 61-51 with 3:57 left in regulation. Then the Explorers made the game interesting with an 11-3 run in those final minutes. Steven Smith made six of the Explorers final 13 points during the offensive attack.
The Pirates had to rely on clutch free-throw shooting from Donald Didlake who made four from the line in the final 21 seconds to seal the victory.
The Pirates shot impressively from the free-throw line as they made their first 10 attempts. The Pirates missed their first free throw with 2:07 left in the first half. Jeff Granger was perfect from the charity stripe in eight attempts, scoring 14 points in the first half. He continued his hot shooting in the second half with two more successful attempts.
The Explorers were not to be outdone as they made 12-of 13 free throws in the second half and kept the Pirates from the line for the first 12 minutes of the half. But the Explorers were forced to foul the Pirates and they made enough free throws to capture the victory.
The Pirates had 13 second-chance points in the first half. The Explorers had no second-chance points in the half.
Didlake had 18 points for the Pirates. Devin Green had seven points and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds. David Johnson had four crowd-pleasing slam-dunks to account for his total offensive contribution of eight points.
Smith led the Explorers with 17 points. David Bell had 11 points and Mike Cleaves had 10 points. Bell and Smith had seven and six rebounds.
Action continues on Sunday with games featuring Boston College vs. Monmouth at 6:30 p.m. and Wichita State vs. Hampton at 9 p.m.

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