Patriots Edge Revelers
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C., Dec. 18 -- The Fayetteville Patriots have recorded back-to-back wins after beating the Mobile Revelers 62-60 Tuesday at the Crown Coliseum. The Patriots are coming off of a Sunday road win against the league-leading North Charleston Lowgators.
Tuesday's win against the Revelers put the Patriots at 5-11 while the Revelers fell to 8-7. The series between the Patriots and the Revelers is now even at one a piece. The Patriots lost to the Revelers during their Nov. 16 home opener 83-74.
"Defense was good tonight," said Patriots coach Nate "Tiny" Archibald. "I'm very pleased with our defensive hustle, we need to execute our offense now. Antwain (Smith) was the key to us winning tonight. Down the stretch he came in and got some great blocks and rebounds."
Both the Patriots and Revelers played heads-up basketball the first four minutes of the game. The lead changed six times and the score was tied eight times. During first-quarter action, the Patriots' Terrell McIntyre drained a 25-foot jump shot and was team leader with nine points. Mobile's Isaac Fontaine led his team with eight.
Despite the Patriots outshooting the Revelers from the field 56 to 42 percent, the Patriots only led by three at the end of the quarter with a score of 23-20.
The Patriots went cold in the second quarter around the 6:35 mark and missed all of their shot attempts for the next three minutes. Mobile's Martin Lewis came off the bench hot and scored six points to include 4-for-4 from the free throw line. The Patriots' Smith managed to establish himself with seven points. Neither team shot well from the field and had a combined score of 29 points in the second quarter. The Patriots led at the end of the half 38-34.
During third-quarter action, The Patriots continued to win the battle of the boards, outrebounding the Revelers 17-11. However, the Revelers were able to cut the lead to one off of 13 third-quarter points from Anthony Johnson.
The fourth quarter was all defense for the Patriots. They were able to tally five blocks in the quarter, two of which came from Darrell Johns within 20 seconds of each other. The Revelers also assisted the Patriots by missing a few key shots including a dunk by Johnson.
Despite the third block by Smith, the Revelers were able to regain the lead after a steal by Johnson followed by a layup by Fontaine to retake the lead at the 4:46 mark. The Patriots held their ground again at the defensive end with another set of blocks coming from Smith just before the 3-minute mark.
The Patriots' McIntyre provided solid shooting down the stretch with back-to-back jumpers. John Strickland set up the victory by sinking two key free throws to push the lead to three 62-59. The Patriots clinched the 62-60 win with a final defensive stand in which they out-rebounded the Revelers four rebounds to one.
"Tonight, I took it upon myself to step up and make some key blocks and to grab some rebounds in the third quarter," Smith said.
Two Patriots players were in double figures, McIntyre had 15 and Strickland contributed to the win with 12. The Revelers high scorers were Fontaine with 19 and Johnson 17.
