Gardner-Webb To Host Winthrop Wednesday Night In Men's Hoops Action
February 17, 2009 | Men's Basketball
BOILING SPRINGS - Gardner-Webb will attempt to snap a three-game
losing streak Wednesday night, but will have to do so against a
very hungry Winthrop team in Paul Porter Arena (7:00 pm).
The Runnin' Bulldogs (11-14, 7-8 Big South) hold just a one-game
lead on the Eagles (7-18, 6-9 Big South) who completed a season
sweep of Presbyterian with a win on Saturday night. GWU would be
the No. 5 seed if the regular season ended now.
Coach Randy Peele's bunch has improved considerably since falling
64-49 to Gardner-Webb at home on January 14, picking up four of
their six league wins since that loss.
Freshman Andre Jones (8.6 ppg) has picked up the slack since Reggie
Middleton went down with a season-ending injury and will team with
an athletic group that includes Mantoris Robinson (6.7 ppg, 16 pts
vs. GWU), Charles Corbin (9.6 ppg) and Cameron Stanley (10.0
ppg).
Gardner-Webb is in the midst of its longest losing streak (three
games) since an early December swoon, but has lost those three
games by an average of just 6.3 ppg - including a nine-point
overtime loss last week at UNC Asheville.
Two of those three losses, and four of the team's last five
setbacks, have come with leading scorer Grayson Flittner sidelined
with a leg injury. Flittner (15.8 ppg) returned on Saturday to face
High Point, but was visibly rusty, scoring just two points, missing
all seven of his field goal attempts and going just 2-for-4 from
the charity stripe in what wound up a four-point loss.
Aaron Linn (15.0 ppg) has stepped up his scoring since Flittner's
injury, but has been hampered by foul trouble himself. The Lenexa,
Kan., senior scored a team-high 21 points on Saturday vs. High
Point, but played just 24 minutes before fouling out just before
the final buzzer. Jonathan Moore (11.5 ppg in Big South play),
Auryn MacMillan (9.3 ppg) and Nate Blank (9.2 ppg) must pick up
their scoring totals if Gardner-Webb is to compete for a top-4 spot
in the final league standings.
Freshman Joshua Henley has done his part on the glass, averaging
10.0 rebounds per game so far in 2008-09, which is just 14 rebounds
shy of the Big South Conference's freshman season record (Joe
Spinks, Campbell, 1991).
Gardner-Webb enters Wednesday's game just a game behind
fourth-place UNC Asheville, but faces an uphill battle to secure a
top-4 seed in the upcoming Advance Auto Parts Big South Conference
Tournament. Asheville holds any tiebreaker scenario over
Gardner-Webb by virtue of its regular season sweep of the Runnin'
Bulldogs, which means GWU would have to pass the Bulldogs
completely with only three games remaining on the Big South
slate.
Fans interested in tickets for Wednesday's game vs. Winthrop can
call the GWU ticket office at (704) 406-4340.
