February 16, 2003
By halftime Saturday, Fran McCaffery was ticked off. The UNC Greensboro basketball coach chewed out his team, benched his two best players and kicked everybody out of the locker room.
"The most intense tirade I've had in four years here," he admitted.
By game's end, it was Citadel coach Pat Dennis oozing frustration. His Bulldogs let a 12-point second-half lead slip away, dropping a 67-66 decision before 1,211 fans at McAlister Field House.
"A tough loss, a very tough loss for us," said Dennis, his tie pulled loose and sweat soaking through his shirt. "We should win this game at home."
That realization made the loss even more hurtful for the Bulldogs, who have lost three straight and fell further into the Southern Conference South Division cellar with an 8-15 record, 3-9 in the league.
Junior forward Max Mombollet, who led the Bulldogs with 17 points and eight rebounds, pondered a box score that showed The Citadel shooting 49.1 percent -- its best performance since Dec. 9 -- and shook his head.
"We had them under control," he said softly. "We just didn't execute down the stretch. After the first half, we became sloppy, and they just took it to us. They wanted it more than we did."
Said freshman point guard Kevin Hammack, "We just self-destructed, really."
Junior forward Jay Joseph, one of McCaffery's benched stars, came back to lead the Spartans with 14 points, including eight straight down the stretch as UNC Greensboro (7-17, 3-9) tied the game at 60-60. Ronnie Burrell, a sweet-shooting 6-8 sophomore, also scored 14 points and little-used freshman point guard Mark Mason had 10 points.
The Citadel's freshman backcourt of Hammack and Dante Terry combined for 25 points, 13 by Terry on 3-of-5 shooting from 3-point range and 12 points and six assists from Hammack. Senior Mike Joseph added 10 points, six assists and five rebounds off the bench.
The Bulldogs touched off McCaffery's tirade with a 10-0 run to close out the first half, going from a 29-29 tie to a 39-29 halftime lead. Mombollet scored five points during that run, and Terry's 3-pointer at the buzzer sent the Bulldogs dancing into the locker room, with former Citadel point guard and noted author Pat Conroy smiling down from the stands.
By that point, McCaffery, the former Lehigh coach who led the Spartans to a 20-11 record and an NIT berth last season, was fuming. After telling Jay Joseph, leading scorer James Maye and starting point guard Ray Bristow they were benched to start the second half, he sent his players back to the court with almost 10 minutes left in the intermission.
"I was really upset, with our effort, our concentration," he said. "Twice we turned it over and didn't run back, and they lay it in because we're just jogging. When you are fighting for your lives like we are, you can't have that kind of effort. You can lose, but you have to compete and leave it all out there."
The Bulldogs extended their lead to 12 at 41-29 on Clyde Wormley's jumper to open the second half, but McCaffery's make-shift lineup began to eat into the lead. Burrell's jumper at 14:30 capped a 13-4 run and made it 43-42, and the game was on from there.
"We allowed their second- and third-team guys to cut into the lead," said Dennis, whose team committed 12 of its 17 turnovers in the second half, and shot 1 of 7 from 3-point range in the final 20 minutes.
The Citadel stretched the margin back to 58-52 and led 60-55 with 3:29 left. But Jay Joseph got loose for a short jumper and a 3-pointer, tying the score at 60-60 with 2:13 left. A tough-luck play gave the Spartans their first lead of the second half: The Citadel's Gregg Jones blocked a shot and chased it down in the corner, but threw the ball to the wrong team. Burrell drove the lane, scored and was fouled, his 3-point play making it 63-60 with 32 seconds left.
Josh Gross and Mason each made two free throws in the final 17 seconds to make it 67-64 for the Spartans. Hammack missed a 3-pointer in the final seconds, Mombollet putting in the rebound at the buzzer for the final score.
NOTES
The Citadel's Mike Joseph now has 997 career points, three shy of the 1,000-point mark. He'll be the 22nd Citadel player to score 1,000 career points ... The Citadel plays Monday at Furman (10-16, 4-8), the team it is trying to pass in the SoCon South. Furman was idle Saturday ... The Citadel held a moment of silence Saturday for Eddie Jones, who died Friday at age 66. Jones, a retired captain with the Charleston Fire Department, had worked the door at Citadel football, baseball and basketball games for 38 years. "He lived to come to the games," said senior associate athletic director Ray Whiteman.
