Averett falls to Carnegie Mellon in lackluster performance

The first half was something less than a slugfest.

It featured a couple of cross-court passes to the concession stand, a bounce pass to the Averett University scorekeeper and it took nearly 5 minutes for either team to score their first field goal. The Cougars didn’t score until nearly 8 minutes into the game, yet only trailed their ranked opponent by single digits.

“I think we set the game back aways with our play in the first half,” Carnegie Mellon coach Tony Wingen said. “We looked like two teams coming off of Christmas break.”

Averett mounted a comeback – and even led the game at halftime – but the Cougars suffered a complete defensive collapse after the break while falling 69-59 to Carnegie Mellon on the first day of the inaugural Domino’s Pizza Cougar Classic on Friday night at the Grant Center in Danville.

Ryan Einwag scored a game-high 32 points to lead Carnegie Mellon while Ryan Frazier led a trio of Cougars in double-figure scoring with 15 points on five 3-pointers.

Averett, which played its first home game in a month, takes on Lynchburg College, a 69-49 winner against Ferrum College, at 4 p.m. today. Ferrum faces Carnegie Mellon at 2 p.m.

Carnegie Mellon (9-1), after being held to 19 percent shooting in the first half against Averett (6-5), exploded offensively after intermission, shooting a blistering 70 percent from the floor. The Tartans scored on all but eight possessions in the second half.

“All I have to say is I’m completely and utterly embarrassed with our defensive half, from our coaching staff all the way down to our players on the floor,” Averett coach Jimmy Allen said. “You can’t have a team shoot 70 percent and think you’re going to win a basketball game. … We shot 54 percent in the second half and lost the basketball game. That’s frustrating.”

“We just couldn’t stop them from scoring,” Frazier said.

Poor free throw shooting also came back to haunt the Cougars, who shot a paltry 7-for-23 from the line.

Carnegie Mellon slowly built an 8-0 lead until Averett scored its first points nearly 8 minutes into the contest.

The Cougars used an 11-0 run to take their first lead of the game at 15-14 shortly before halftime and entered intermission with a 22-18 advantage.

But Averett’s early offensive struggles reappeared late in the contest during a nearly 4-minute span when the Cougars managed only a single point. Carnegie Mellon used that span to quickly build a double-digit lead, which the Tartans were able to preserve until the end.

“To be honest with you, I was pretty nervous about this,” Wingen said. “Coming on the road to another good team, a long bus ride and all that, you never know. And after the first half tonight, you really never know.”

Lynchburg 69, Ferrum 64
Lynchburg College defeated Ferrum College 69-64 in the early game. Mason Wooldridge scored a game-high 17 points and grabbed eight rebounds while Steven Echols added 15 points and 10 boards for Lynchburg (3-8). Derek Mitchell led five Ferrum (6-5) players in double-figure scoring with 12 points and nine rebounds.