Altitude Reach New Heights in Third Quarter

The Altitude may want to check into the possibility to playing more games in the Star City. Asheville is 2-0 on the Dazzle's home floor this season -- the only wins in six road starts for Coach Joey Meyer's club. The Altitude (4-6) snapped a three-game losing streak with the lopsided win.

Asheville led 29-27 in a slowed first half, then outscored the Dazzle 27-10 in the decisive third quarter. The Altitude had four double-figure scorers, led by Jason Hart's 15 points and 13 from center Paul Grant.

"We came out with a purpose and stuck to the game plan and made some shots," Grant said. "We just haven't gotten the job done recently. Tonight, we did. We kept the turnovers down. We're always looking to build on a win. Sunday (when Fayetteville visits the Asheville Civic Center), we need to do that."

Asheville outscored the Dazzle 21-2 in the first six minutes of the third quarter. Hart got eight of his game-high 15 in the period, while Roanoke had nine turnovers in those 10 minutes, and went 4-for-13 from the field.

Roanoke shot a season-low 35.7 percent, and for the second straight game, committed 27 turnovers. The Dazzle (4-5) got center Thomas Hamilton's sixth double-double of the season (10 points, 11 rebounds), but was outrebounded, and had a combined 8-for-26 shooting night from its five guards.

"Roanoke didn't have a great night, and some nights are like that, but I thought we played very good defense," Meyer said. "We needed this. We'd lost two of our last three at the buzzer. It was nice not to come down to the last shot.

"This doesn't mean a whole lot if we don't win on Sunday (at home against last-place Fayetteville). We can't have one victory and six losses (the skid entering the game for the Altitude). We need to start building on things."

Forward Marshall Phillips led Roanoke with 13 points. The Dazzle's player of the game was the team's 11th man, Roanoke native and resident Derrick Hines, playing in his first home game of the season. The 5-11 guard scored three points, his first as a pro.

Otherwise, Roanoke coach Kent Davison didn't see much he liked.

"It was ugly," Davison said. "We've played nine games now, and we've had some spurts where we haven't played very well, but this was 40 minutes where we didn't do anything. We couldn't catch it, we couldn't shoot it. The only thing we did consistently was turn it over. It was embarrassing to me."

"Some of my disappointment with this is because of the expectations I had after how we had practiced the last two days. It was a horrible tempo. To score 27 points in the half, that's sure not us, and that's sure not how I want to play. I want to score 47 in a half. What we had out there, that's their tempo. We played to their tempo. They've had some low-scoring games. We're trying to increase it. Tonight, this was just a nightmare."

Hamilton said "it wasn't a good night for any of us. We need more effort. We need fewer turnovers."