Stetson Splits Conference Games

This past week, Stetson split its conference games, winning against West Georgia and losing to Queens, who is now 6-0 to start conference play. In their 95-86 win over West Georgia, the Hatters led most of the way, pulling away late to increase their margin of victory. While the West Georgia forwards were very productive, especially on the offensive end, junior forward and Georgia Southern transfer Collin Kuhl had a career high 26 points on 9-10 shooting from the field. Most of Kuhl’s points came from above the basket, many of which were alley-oops. His connection with Calvin Sirmans is the driving force behind his recording two new career highs in each of the last two games.

While the Hatters led most of the way, it was challenging to put West Georgia away because forward Shelton Williams-Dryden was so dominant. Williams-Dryden had over twenty field goal attempts, as did Josh Smith. The Wolves’ goal from the jump was to try to control the game through the interior, which was successful on the offensive end, but it also allowed Stetson to shoot over 60% from the field and 67% from three. Collin Kuhl was not the only Stetson forward who showed up. Finley Sheridan scored in the double-digits for the fifth time in as many games, which extends back to the Hatters’ first game in conference play. As well as establishing his presence in the post, he knocked down three massive shots from beyond the arc, creating space for the guards to get open looks from all over the floor, which Calvin Sirmans III benefited the most from. Although he had not shot well so far on his three-point attempts, he went 5-6, which was all-important to extend the lead. When it was a one- possession game late in the second half, it was Ethan Copeland who hit a three off a nicely drawn-up play, putting the Wolves away.

Hatters’ leading scorer Jamie Phillips Jr. played 22 minutes in the game, but he did not play like his usual self due to still playing through that same shoulder injury that caused him to sit out the Austin Peay game. Phillips sat out the last few minutes of the first half against West Georgia with a wrap on his shoulder, but later returned in the second half, where he injured his ankle, sidelining him for the remainder of the game and the following contest against Queens.

The key to victory over West Georgia was playing some very efficient team basketball, because Philips, who is averaging 27 pgg in ASUN play, was only available for half of the game.

Queens

Coming off their impressive win against previously 3-1 in conference West Georgia, the Hatters had probably their most difficult home test of the season against Queens, who were 5-0 in ASUN play. Due to only having one day of rest in between these two games, the Hatters were again without Jamie Phillips Jr. This marked the second time this season that Phillips would not be in the lineup when the Hatters were facing a team undefeated in the ASUN. Therefore, the Hatters would need to put up a very similar performance to that in the last game.

On just the first offensive possession of the game for Queens, Collin Kuhl fouled his former Georgia Southern teammate Avantae Parker, which would send him to the bench right away, because Coach Jones did not want to be down another star with Kuhl possibly getting in foul trouble. Right when Kuhl returned to the game, he picked up his second foul, which sent him to the bench for the rest of the first half. Kuhl played a total of just 1:47 of action in the first half. Without him, Finley Sheridan continued to step up and was the best player on the floor for the Hatters in the first half. Sheridan had a season-high 9 first-half points, but was also a force on the glass and on the defensive end. Without Kuhl, Queens went to work in the post just as West Georgia did, and the Hatters had no answer. Both the Queens guards and forwards had a lot of success getting to the basket. Despite all of this going wrong, the Hatters were only down nine and very much still in the game going into the second half.

Right from the jump, Collin Kuhl started to get going, scoring two baskets by using his body in the post to overpower the Queens’ defenders. Right from that moment, it was evident that the game would be a fierce battle until the end. While the Hatters found their stride
offensively, they could not find a way to stop Queens, which allowed the Queens to hold a double-digit lead for most of the second half. However, the grit and fight the Hatters played with kept them in the game, along with Grad Transfer guard Jake Johnson, who had 18 points and took on most of the offensive load. Stetson clawed back to cut the deficit to 76-74 with just over a minute left, but then the Hatters’ season-long rebounding struggles came back to bite them. Queens missed two shots, rebounded both, which eventually led to a three that put the Hatters down five.

It was challenging to play a team as talented as this one, which plays such great complementary basketball. The Hatters put up an impressive fight without their best player. While it is disappointing that Phillips has missed the two biggest games of the season so far, there will be many more critical contests in the future. Two of these are the Hatters’  next two games: @ Lipscomb and @ Austin Peay, both of whom are 5-1 in ASUN play. The Hatters have played really well as of late against some of the top teams in the conference, so they have the recipe for success but need to carry over their confidence, especially into these next two, and then into the rest of the season when the schedule becomes a little bit more manageable.