Lowgators' Bet the House and Win
NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. Dec. 10, 2001 – Fred House poured in 24 points to lead North Charleston to a 101-89 NBDL basketball victory over Roanoke Monday night at the North Charleston Coliseum.
The victory improved the league-leading Lowgators record to 11-2 and kept North Charleston unbeaten at home at 6-0. Roanoke’s third consecutive loss dropped the Dazzle to 4-6 in front of 1,017 fans.
With North Charleston trailing 78-75 at the end of the third quarter, House came to life and ignited a Lowgator run that put the game away. The first-year pro from Southern Utah scored 12 points in the final quarter, including 10 in a span of 5:02 midway through the period.
“Coach looked at me and said 'number 11 it’s all you’,” House said. “He called my number down the stretch and I knew I had to respond. We came out really slow, but we showed up at 100-percent in the fourth quarter.”
House led six Lowgators scorers in double figures. C.J. Black had 15 points, followed by Galen Young and Sedric Webber with 12 each. Tess Whitlock chipped in 11 points and Chris Robinson 10.
“Fred House was great tonight. He came here ready to play,” North Charleston head coach Alex English said. “I also thought Neil Edwards did a good job altering some shots and Galen Young really heated up and took the ball to the basket.”
North Charleston’s 101 points marked the first time an NBDL team had broken the century mark in the young history of the developmental league. The Lowgators also owned the previous high mark in a 97-93 victory in overtime at Columbus Saturday.
Roanoke’s two big men gave North Charleston trouble in the early part of the game before the Lowgators made some defensive adjustments to try and throttle Thomas Hamilton (7-2, 330) and Lorenzo Coleman (7-0, 320). Both finished with 19 points, as did Artie Griffin.
“We had trouble with those two big guys. They are a big, big mass inside,” English said. “They like to go high-low to those guys, so we had to start denying that high pass. Defense finally won it for us again tonight.”
“Our guys came out and played the way we are capable of playing. I was proud of the way we played coming off that last loss (69-52 to Asheville on Friday),” Roanoke head coach Kent Davidson said. “I don’t know if we got tired, but we weren’t able to make some plays down the stretch and they made big shots down the stretch.”
The Lowgators stay at home to host the Mobile Revelers (5-5) Thursday. The Revelers handed North Charleston one of its two losses two weeks ago in Mobile. Tip off is scheduled for 7 p.m. Roanoke plays host to Mobile Friday.
