Feb. 23, 2008
MONTEVALLO, Ala. - The University of West Florida men's basketball team dropped a 78-67 contest to Montevallo, in a Gulf South Conference game at the People's Bank and Trust Arena and McChesney Student Activity Center, Saturday night in Montevallo. The Argonauts fell behind early, and made an impressive second half run, but it would fall short. Ryan Henry and Josh Jackson led the way for UWF with 16 points apiece.
Montevallo raced out to an early lead, by shooting 50 percent from the field for the first half. In fact, Montevallo was shooting over 60 percent for the first 16 minutes of the game. The Argonauts stepped up the defense, and held Montevallo to only 32 percent shooting in the second half. West Florida trailed by 24 points at the half, but trimmed the lead to six points (61-55) with just over five minutes remaining. However, the Falcon's Terrill Humphrey was able to answer with a 3-point basket, pushing the lead back to nine.
West Florida has lead the conference just about the entire season in defensive field goal percentage, and was right on par for the second half, holding Montevallo under 35% shooting. However, it was the three point shooting that provided the Falcons the big early lead. Montevallo connected on 8 of 13 three pointers in the first half, while the Argos could only manage 3 of 12 from long range in the first half. Statistically, just about everything ended up even, with the exception of the three-point shooting. Montevallo also had a slight edge in the rebounding with 41, to the Argos 35.
Ryan Henry and Josh Jackson started to heat up in the second half, both finishing with 16 points, and hitting some three point baskets. Meanwhile, Charles Bouie had another impressive outing with 15 points, eight rebounds, and two blocked shots. Deondre Boynton added 10 points, nine rebounds, and five assists, along with three steals, including one in the final three minutes, that led to a layup to close the gap to within eight points.
Meanwhile, Kenny Holmes added five points, six rebounds, and two assists. Max Hoggard provided some spark of the bench, coming in a draining a three point basket to help give the Argos some momentum, and Lucas Malone also added two points off the bench. David Maddux and Tyler Fleming came in and added two rebounds, two assists and a steal.
The loss dropped the Argonauts to 13-12 on the season, and put them in position for a must win on Monday night, to earn a trip to the conference tournament. The Argos will need a little help from a Montevallo loss, and then they could win their way into the conference tournament by winning their final two games. Monday night, UWF plays at home against West Alabama, in the final home game of the season. It is senior night, and Lucas Evangelista, David Maddux, and Tyler Fleming will be honored for their careers at UWF, as they play their final game in the UWF fieldhouse. Game time is 7:30 pm, and the seniors will be honored just prior to tip-off.
