Groove Rally Dizzying for Dazzle
GREENVILLE, S.C., Dec. 23, 2001 -- Led by DeeAndre Hulett's 20 points, the Greenville Groove rallied back from a 14-point deficit to defeat the Roanoke Dazzle 70-69 Sunday evening.
The Dazzle led by as many as six points in the fourth quarter, but a Hulett reverse layup and a Billy Thomas three-pointer gave the Groove a two-point lead at 70-68 with 46 seconds remaining.
Roanoke was given an opportunity to take the lead when Greenville was whistled for a technical foul for calling an excessive timeout, The Dazzle made the technical free throw to cut the lead to one point, but a defensive stand by the Groove secured the victory. With the victory, Greenville improved to 9-10 while the Dazzle fell to 6-11.
The Groove caused five Dazzle turnovers in the fourth quarter and were able to erase the six point deficit with the combination of tough defense and clutch shooting.
"We were able to hang through it and get the job done in the end," said Groove head coach Milton Barnes.
Both teams were down players who are normally big contributors. Greenville was without leading scorer Ansu Sesay, who is recovering from a knee injury, while Roanoke was without the services of Danny Earl (abdominal strain) and center Thomas Hamilton.
"DeeAndre played well tonight. He just needs to continue to work hard. Maybe the fact that Ansu is gone for a length of time he feels the urgency of getting it done and that may have something to do with it," Barnes said.
"We just didn't take care of the ball the last couple minutes of the game," said Roanoke head coach Kent Davison. "We turned it over three or four times and when you're on the road and you got a lead you have to get a shot. We just didn't get enough shots and that's a difficult thing to take. It's disappointing because we played well enough to win for 37 minutes and just gave it away at the end."
The Groove had no answer for Andre McCollum in the first half, as the Dazzle guard scored 19 first half points with five three-pointers in the first 20 minutes. He was a perfect 5-for-5 from beyond the arc in the first half. He finished with a game-high 25 points. But the Dazzle were limited to just 26 second half points after scoring 43 in the first.
Rahim Lockhart collected his third double-double of the season with 11 points and a season-best 14 rebounds for Greenville. Eric Chenowith added eight points and nine boards.
