ASHEVILLE, N.C., Jan. 10, 2002 – A hot-shooting Columbus team, led by Nate Johnson’s 21 points lifted the Riverdragons to a 97-85 win over the Asheville Altitude in NBDL action Thursday night. Columbus led at halftime 52-43, with Johnson scoring 17 points on 8-of-10 shooting, including one three-pointer.
“You can’t say enough about the way Nate played tonight,” said Columbus head coach Jeff Malone. “Nate set the tone for us early and the rest of his teammates followed suit.”
With the win, Columbus improves to 13-10 on the season, while the Altitude falls to 14-12.
“We had a team meeting and decided in order to be a better basketball team, we needed to play together,” said Malone. “We had guys more worried about NBA call-ups and minutes, instead of winning and that was one of the reasons why we haven’t played well.”
Malone went on to say that he felt his team was coming together. “This was by far, the best game we have played this season.”
Columbus shot a sizzling 56 percent from the field on 41-of-72 attempts with five players scoring in double-figures. In addition to Johnson, Tremaine Fowlkes (17 points), Gabe Muoneke (16 points), Kareem Poole (15 points) and Jeremy Veal (11 points) kept Asheville from making any type of sustained run.
Asheville, who shot over 50 percent through three quarters, trailed by eight points (74-66) at the start of the fourth quarter. With 7:46 left in the period, the Altitude went on a 7-4 run to cut the deficit to three points at 76-73.
Columbus would outscore Asheville 21-12 over the next 7:00 minutes, shooting a sizzling 62 percent from the field in the period for their eighth road victory of the season.
Asheville was led in scoring by Paul Grant (21 points), Rusty LaRue (19 points), Johnny Hemsley (19 points) and Jimmy King (14 points).
Post-Game Quotes:
Columbus Head Coach Jeff Malone:
On The Little Things
“We have a lot of guys that can score, but it is the little things that will help us win basketball games.”
“We have to rebound and create easy scoring opportunities with our defense.”
Asheville Head Coach Joey Meyer:
On The Way His Team Played
“I was disappointed in the way we played defense tonight.”
“You can’t take anything away from Columbus, they shot the basketball extremely well tonight.”
“We tried everything to slow down their shooters, with zone defenses, man-to-man defenses and even a little trapping; nothing seemed to work and they kept scoring and scoring.”
