Photo by: Andrew Fielding
DU’s men’s basketball trounced the Sun Belt Conference East Division-leader Florida Atlantic 69-42 Thursday night, but lost on the road to Troy 64-55 on Saturday.
Against FAU, sophomore Chase Hallam added 18 points to the scoreboard, along with five rebounds. Junior Brian Stafford scored 15 points and had three assists, while fellow classmate Justin Coughlin added to Denver’s victory with 13 points and an astounding seven rebounds.
“This was a big game for us,” head coach Joe Scott said. “This was probably the best we’ve played all year, and I’m really proud of our guys. FAU came into this game undefeated on the road (in conference play), and it really says something about our team to be the first ones to beat them.”
During the game, the Pioneers (12-13, 8-4) tallied 15 of 18 free throw attempts, while FAU shot a poorious 11 of 25 from the free throw line. With the win Denver’s home record goes to 4-0 in conference and advanced the Pioneers to an over 8-3 conference play.
In addition, DU played one of its best defensive games of the season holding the Owls to only 21 points in each half.
“When we execute on defense it shows up on the offensive end,” said Scott. “We must always keep our focus on that end of the court.”
Despite the success at home, the team lost its fourth consecutive road contest against Troy (6-17, 4-7) two days later.
The win was only the Trojans’ sixth of the season and dropped the Pioneers into a tie for the West Division lead with Arkansas State.
Troy executed a 12-5 lead against DU at the start of the game and continued to thrive offensively and defensively. With less than five minutes left on the clock, the Trojans had a 12-point lead.
Denver’s overall percentage of shots from the field was 39.2, while Troy’s was 51.2. Brian Stafford scored 11 points for the Pioneers. Troy‘s Will Weather scored 19 points and 10 rebounds.
“We took away their threes, and as we did that, we made it into a one-on-one game and their players were better offensively than we were defensively in those situations. Give them credit for that. We must get better at our one-on-one defense,” Scott said. “I’m looking forward to going back home to have some good practices to get ready for Thursday.”
The next two games will be in Magness Arena. The first is against Louisiana-Monroe on Thursday and the final home game will be against South Alabama on Sunday.
