FINAL STATISTICS
bears beaten by golden bulls
Shaw Slides to Seventh Straight
Loss
February 16, 2008 – Wake County, NC – The Shaw University Bears hosted the Johnson C. Smith Golden Bulls in Broughton High School’s Holliday Gymnasium. Despite possession a lead as large as nine points, the Bears were burned in the second half by JCSU’s 62.5% (15 of 24) field goal percentage to be defeated, 81 – 67. The Bears record now stands at 4 – 21 Overall, 1 – 16 CIAA, and 1 – 7 Division.
In the first half’s first five minutes of play, Shaw sped in, around, and through JCSU’s defense to take an 11 – 2 lead. Nevertheless, the Golden Bulls’ slow-to-start offense fueled up with two thirty second timeouts to strike up a 12 – 2 scoring run and take possession of their first lead, 14 – 13. However, the Bears re-took the lead 23 – 16 with a couple of post productions by #30 Damola “Mr. Post Man” Obadina (Forward / 6 – 5 / 240 / Senior / Minneapolis, MN) and a second three-pointer made by #11 John “Downtown” Douros (Guard / 6 – 2 / 180 / Junior / Raleigh, NC). Just inside the five minutes mark, JCSU jumped back out in the forefront to take a three-point lead, 28 – 25, with consecutive scores from sophomore guard #2 Jerry Hollis. In the final three minutes, the Golden Bulls journeyed on a 10 – 3 scoring run. Near the end of the half, Shaw’s Douros dialed in his fourth three-pointer to cut JCSU’s led to four. The Golden Bulls led 35 – 31 at the break.
It is almost certain that increasing the feed to the hot hands of Douros was one item listed on the Bears “things to do” second half agenda. Douros made four of five attempted three-pointers to be the only player at halftime to lead all scorers with 12 points. Shaw scooted within three, 43 – 40 JCSU, after #34 John “Kash” Kornegay (Guard / 5 – 10 / 180 / Senior / Detroit, MI) pumped fake and then passed the basketball inside to #00 Cori “Mr. Hustle” Gaither (Forward / 6 – 5 / 190 / Senior / Jacksonville, NC) for the lay-up. Unfortunately, Head Coach Robert Brickey had to call a timeout after JCSU sparked Shaw with a 13 – 5 scoring run to take an eleven point lead, 56 – 45, with seven minutes remaining. The Bears began to operate with a stagnated offense. Furthermore, Shaw’s “Achilles heel” was the Golden Bulls’ senior center #42 David Sanders as he hoisted JCSU’s offense on his shoulders and served as their “human vacuum cleaner” by solely blocking out Bear defenders to produce a plethora of post put-backs. Shaw did not in any means waive the white towel as a three-pointer by Kornegay and a lay-up by #20 Robert “And One” Espinosa (Forward / 6 – 7 / 195 / Senior / Plainfield, NJ).
Leading the Bears in scoring was #11 John Douros with a game high 17 points (three rebounds / two assists). Providing additional scoring was #30 Damola Obadina with 16 points (four rebounds). King of the boards was a two-way tie between #34 John Kornegay (six points / two assists / one steal) and Obadina with five rebounds each.
The Shaw University Bears will take on the Tigers of Saint Paul’s College on Tuesday, February 16th in C. C. Spaulding. The “Senior Night” competition is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m.
