Asheville Offense Breaks Out in Win Over Fayetteville

With the win, the Altitude improves to 3-3 on the season, while the Patriots fall to 1-7. Asheville and Fayetteville will square off again on Saturday, Dec. 1 at the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville.

"I just wanted to come out and help this team win," said a relived Hart. "In my first two games, I felt like I did not contribute much and tonight, I proved my worth."

The Altitude jumped out to an early 11-point advantage in the first quarter and never looked back, thanks to some welcomed outside shooting by Johnny Hemsley (14 points) and Jimmy King (13 points). Coming into Thursday's contest, the Altitude had shot over 40 percent one time this season. Vs. the Patriots on Thursday, the Altitude shot 35-of-73 from the field (47.9 percent).

"We shot the basketball as well as we could tonight," said Altitude head coach Joey Meyer. "Over the past five games, we played good enough defense to win games but we just weren't making our shots. Tonight our perimeter players stepped up and the outcome was in our favor."

Before Thursday night's game, the Altitude had not scored over 70 points in five games played. In each of the previous contest, with the exception of the 70-66 win over Roanoke on November 20, the Altitude had scored 66, 60, 62 and 68 points respectively.

"I was amazed when I looked up at the scoreboard and we had scored 70 points by the end of the third quarter," said Meyer. "It was a welcomed change to see the benefits of our hard work on the defensive end. Our guys got out on the break and created easy scoring opportunities for themselves and it was nice to see."

In addition to Hart, Hemsley and King, the Altitude had two other players reach double-figure scoring including Paul Grant (13 points) and Jermaine Tate (12). Tate was inserted into the starting lineup in place of Sah-u-ra Brown, who was averaging less than three points per game.

"Asheville came out ready to play tonight and we didn't," said Patriots head coach Nate Archibald. "We knew they had the potential to put points on the board, but we were hoping it didn't come against our team."

The Altitude opened the second half on a 12-7 run, extending the halftime lead to 64-41 with 3:44 remaining in the quarter. Fayetteville would get as close as 18 points by the fourth quarter, before Asheville stretched the advantage to 20 points to secure the victory.

Patriots forward John Strickland scored 22 points and Grep Stempin had 15 points to lead all Fayetteville scorers. Terquin Mott chipped in with 10 points.