The streaking Pioneers pounded the South Alabama Jaguars 69-56 Saturday afternoon at Magness Arena to go 5-0 after an opening loss. A sparse Magness holiday crowd watched the win.
The game started out even with South Alabama playing the ball low. South Alabama's Georgi Boyanov started with the hot hand but Bryant Rucker's 14 points pushed the Pioneers to a 10+ lead and eventual 34-20 halftime lead.
Poor shooting by the Jaguars could not keep pace with DU's efficient Princeton inside-out offense. The Pioneers out rebounded the Jaguars by 6 boards at half but had a number of uncharacteristic turnovers. Joe Rosga played almost the entire half and was dynamic on both ends of the floor - and lead all squads with 5 rebounds. C.J Bobbitt had the flu and had limited playing time.
South Alabama started the second half pressuring full court but their cold shooting continued. Rosga drives to the hoop continued to do damage to USA and extend the lead to 24 points. A technical on USA's Nick Stover at 8:10 remaining showed the frustration of a team unable to come untracked with missed shots, turnovers, and charges against the pesky Pioneers.
A USA in-bound trap cut the lead to 14 points with 5 minutes to go but DU broke the press open after several turnovers to extend the lead. Relentless pressure, steals and traps helped USA take the score to single digits with a minute to go. Denver stayed calm, stopped turning the ball over, hit free throws and closed out the game.
Marcus Byrd played big minutes and added veteran leadership, inside toughness and 16 points to compliment strong performances from Rosga, Engesser, and Rucker.
DU 69-56.
9 comments:
DU seniors stepped it up today. Byrd (16), Rucker (16) and Engesser (15) led the Pios, and that's the way DU needs to play from here on out to have success, as underclassmen tend to be far less consistent.
A win over Wyoming on Wednesday would help put this Pio team on the local map.
NCAA.com has recognized Head Coach Joe Scott as November schedule-maker-of-the-month. Good choice. Who really thought this DU hoops team could get out of the gate at 5-1.
Nobody. The team starts three freshmen. Rosga is a serious gym-rate talent. Bobbit shows flashes of D-I skills. Neff and Holzman are works in progress that aren't out of place in a D-I lineup but are still young in terms of impact.
No kidding Dunker.
Key is scheduling opponents that no one can name the school nicknames:
Milwaukee
Santa Clara
Lipscomb
Utah Valley
Idaho State
South Alabama
Broncos- Santa Clara
Jaguars- USA
I usually get all college nicknames correct on Jeopardy
You have a bad attitude DG
I agree with you Dunker. What ever happened to the Thanksgivig Holiday goodwill! I'm giving DG a hug during the Battle on Blake.
5BWest: Hopefully you are heavy into wing span extension exercises!!
Litmus test tonight against Wyo. Go Pios!
Lock of the year: Wyoming +5. No DU students at game. Wyoming may have more fans. (I don't count the 700 kids age 4-10 who are at the game to eat and spill food, dance like Elaine Benis, and totally annoy their parents and me) No altitude advantage.
I know Wyoming stinks, but really, if they can't cover this line, Larry Shyatt can get in line for a new job. He's actually a good coach.
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