Eagles turn up defense, 'feast' on So. Wesleyan
By A. Stacy Long
Montgomery Advertiser
Faulkner, after two straight defense-light losses, pushed away from the table Saturday with a content grin.
The Eagles rekindled their defensive intensity in a 95-65 win over Southern Wesleyan at Tine Davis Gymnasium.
"We feasted," senior guard Jammie Evans said. "We had a shutdown mentality."
Faulkner (14-5, 8-2 Southern States Athletic Conference) recorded a season-high 20 steals, had five players score in double figures, including three off the bench, and snapped out of its two-game matador funk.
"Our defense has been shaky. We haven't been playing as hard as we should," freshman Ernest Jordan said.
"We haven't been coming out with the same intensity. We did today, but we have to do that every game."
Faulkner coach Jim Sanderson gave the players some time off after bad losses Monday and Thursday.
The Eagles lost 89-61 on Monday at Spring Hill -- and trailed 81-39 with nine minutes to play. They followed that with a 71-61 loss Thursday at Brewton-Parker.
"Our defense was not very good against Brewton-Parker, and we didn't play any against Spring Hill," Sanderson said. "It looked like we were running uphill both ways against Spring Hill.
"But we can't worry about those games now. We can't worry about this game now. We have to see what we do from here."
On Friday, the players had only individual meetings with Sanderson. The Eagles had a light walkthrough early Saturday.
The rest showed Saturday.
"We were a very energetic team," said Evans, who scored a game-high 19 points and made four steals. "I could tell that at tipoff. I could tell it during warm-ups."
Jordan complemented his 10 points with a game-high six steals, while Jeremy Lunn scored 16 points, Jon Uriarte added 12 and Brandon Vaughn 10.
Southern Wesleyan (3-13, 1-8) committed 27 turnovers, leading to 32 Faulkner points. In the first half, the Eagles scored 18 points off turnovers; the Warriors scored none.
"That's great," Evans said. "We'll take that every day."
Faulkner used a 21-2 run in the first half to build on a two-point lead. It started when Raul Cardenas scored with 12:52 left and ended with Evans' layup at the 8:05 mark that made it 38-17.
In that stretch, Southern Wesleyan was 1-for-8 from the field with seven turnovers.
"Our guys showed some enthusiasm," Sanderson said. "They were even bouncing around in warm-ups. You could tell they were excited.
"Our kids showed how much they enjoy playing."