Men's Basketball Guts Out 49-40 Win Over Army, Guarantees First Round PL Tournament Home Game

Feb. 20, 2008

Box Score

WASHINGTON - The American University men's basketball team won its sixth straight game and guaranteed itself a home game in the first round of the Patriot League Tournament with a 49-40 win over Army Wednesday night in Bender Arena.

The Eagles won despite shooting a season-low 28.2 percent and scoring a season-low 49 points. However, American's defense stepped up and held the Black Knights to just 40 points, also a season-low points allowed for the Eagles. The Eagles held Army's Jarell Brown, the league's second-leading scorer coming into the game at 19.3 ppg, to just 12 points on four-of-14 shooting.

"It's a unique situation to take a win out of a game where you shoot 28 percent," AU Head Coach Jeff Jones said. "The difference was we stayed aggressive and hit our free throws."

American grinded out the win by working its way to the line 31 times, compared to Army's seven attempts, making 23 (74.2 percent) and outrebounded the visitors, 38-29.

As has been true for nearly the whole season for the Eagles, American built up a big halftime lead and then held off any hope of a charge from the Black Knights in the second stanza. AU held Army to just five-of-20 shooting in the first half and just 14 first-half points, building up a 23-14 lead. It would have been a 23-11 lead at the break, save for a half-court shot by Army's Corban Bates that hit the rim twice and then fell through. At halftime, Army had 14 points and 10 turnovers.

However, in a plodding game, the Black Knights found a bit of a rhythm, scoring eight points between the 12:52 mark and the 11:00 mark of the second half to turn a six-point deficit into a 32-all tie. But American then held Army scoreless over the next 4:04 to build up a modest five-point lead (37-32). After the Black Knights' Doug Williams hit a jumper in the lane to make the score 37-34 in favor of AU, Garrison Carr hit a jumper of his own to retake a five-point lead and Army never got closer than five again.

Carr led the Eagles with 16 points, hitting all six of his free throws attempts despite a tough night from the floor. Senior forward Travis Lay was the Eagles second-leading scorer, notching eight points and five rebounds. Meanwhile, junior center Cornelio Guibunda notched six points, while not missing a shot (one-of-one from the field and four-of-four from the line), and added a team-high seven rebounds.

American's season-high win streak extends to six games, its longest ever league win streak in the regular season since joining the PL in 2001 and tied for its longest overall since that time. The 2004 team won six straight games over PL opponents, including the first and second rounds of the PL Tournament. With another win in the regular season, the Eagles can tie their team record for Patriot League wins with both 2002 and 2004, when the Eagles went 10-4 in the PL. AU can also tie for the most season wins (also with the 2001-02 and 2003-04 teams) since the Eagles won 20 games (20-9) in the 1989-90 season, under then Head Coach and current AU Hall of Famer Ed Tapscott. The 2007-08 Eagles are currently tied for the 12th-most single-season wins in the 82-year history of AU men's basketball. With one more win, they'll be tied for ninth.

With the win, American (17-10, 9-3 Patriot League) guarantees itself at least a spot in the top four in the Patriot League standings. The top four teams each host a first round game in the Patriot League Tournament, which begins March 5. In fact, with only two regular season games remaining, AU has guaranteed itself at least a spot in the top two in the league standings. Only Navy, which stayed within 1 ½ games of AU in the standings with a 72-66 win over Holy Cross in Annapolis, Md., Wednesday, can catch the Eagles.

American has the weekend off and next plays at second-place Navy on Wednesday, Feb. 27. Navy first plays Army in West Point, N.Y., on Saturday, Feb. 23.

"We have a week off and can recharge our batteries a bit, knowing that we have a big challenge ahead when we visit Navy next Wednesday night," Jones said.

Tickets for the Navy game are available by calling the Navy ticket office at (800) US4-NAVY or by clicking here. For fans who are unable to make the short, 36-mile drive from AU to Navy, the game will be available on Eagle Vision All*Access. Click here to watch or subscribe.

Meanwhile, tickets for AU's first round Patriot League home game are now available and can be purchased by calling (202) 885-TIXX or by clicking here.