FRANKLIN SPRINGS, GA -- Tedrick Hudson scored 27 points and Graham Maxwell added 20 as Emmanuel College used a sizzling shooting night to upset 22nd-ranked Shorter University 81-65 in Franklin Springs on Thursday night, February 10, 2011.
The Lions (20-6, 5-4 Southern States Athletic Conference East Division) shot 51 percent and hit 13 3-pointers in earning the season sweep of the Hawks (20-6, 4-4), who had their three-game winning streak snapped and lost for the third straight time at Emmanuel.
The loss dropped Shorter into fourth place in the rugged SSAC East, which features three 20-win teams -- Shorter, No. 12 Lee University and Emmanuel -- and defending SSAC champion Southern Poly, which stands at 17-5 overall and 4-2 in the league.
The Hawks missed out on a chance to grab sole possession of third place in the East Division standings, but it was Emmanuel's hot shooting that proved to be the difference.
Emmanuel, which beat the Hawks 57-50 in a defensive struggle at the Winthrop-King Centre on Jan. 15, broke from the offensive shackles on Thursday night, racing out to a 13-2 lead with the help of consecutive 3-pointers by Svetomir Ilic, Hudson and Chase Procuro.
The 3-point barrage continued midway through the first half as a trey from Maxwell and another from Ilic pushed Emmanuel's lead to 26-18 with 7:35 left until halftime.
Shorter fought back to within 28-22 on a field goal by Walter Hill, who finished with a team-high 19 points, but the Lions embarked on a 13-0 run over the next four minutes to go up by 19. Maxwell hit a pair of 3-pointers during the spurt, the last of which put Emmanuel up 41-22 with 2:50 left in the first half.
It was more of the same in the second half as Shorter was unable to make a push in the final 20 minutes.
Maxwell hit two more triples and Hudson connected from beyond the arc as Emmanuel quickly turned its 22-point halftime lead into a 61-35 advantage.
The Lions' lead hovered over 20 points until a Marqise Wright 3-point play made the score 74-55 in favor of Emmanuel with 4:10 to play.
The Hawks shot an admirable 47 percent from the floor, but were plagued by 21 turnovers, their highest turnover total since coughing the ball up 24 times in a win at Brewton-Parker on Jan. 27.
Shorter struggled from long range -- the Hawks went 3-for-15 from 3 -- and while Hill, Wright and Dante Harvey combined for 47 points on 19-for-31 shooting, the other nine Hawks that saw action managed a total of 18 points while going 6-for-22 from the field.
Wright finished with 18 points and eight boards for Shorter and Harvey had 10 points on 5 of 7 accuracy from the field.
The next-highest scorer for the Hawks was Eric Nix, who finished with four points and three assists. The Hawks fell to 8-4 when Nix does not reach his season average of six assists.
Hudson, who did not play in the first meeting between the teams three weeks ago, made up for lost time by hitting four 3-pointers and going 7-for-8 from the foul line. The 27 points were three off his season-high and his performance was a far cry from his 2-for-14, five-point showing in a loss at Lee in the Lions' last outing on Feb. 5.
Shorter looks to get back in the win column on Monday, Feb. 14 when it hosts Southern Poly in an 8 p.m. tip at the Winthrop-King Centre. The Hornets rallied to beat Shorter 83-78 in Marietta in the teams' first meeting of the season.
[Editor's commentary: Graham Maxwell is the son of Chris and Debbie Oliver Maxwell, and the grandson of Stan and Eve Oliver from Orlando, FL. Graham's uncle, Joe Oliver, was the catcher for the Cincinnati Reds that defeated the Oakland Athletics in the 1990 World Series. Joe drove in Billy Bates from second base in Game 2 of the 1990 World Series with a hit off Dennis Eckersley to win the game and propel the Reds to the 1990 title. It's a good thing to keep connected to friends and alumni of Emmanuel College. Hugh's News is one way to do so.
I am grateful to a reader of Hugh's News who sent me this news he had received from Chris Maxwell. Otherwise, I would not have known it. So, you can see how important everyone is to this news service.]
Posted on
Sun, February 13, 2011
by Hugh Morgan