Cougars take Life out of Eagles

By Dave Morrison
Sports Editor

November 29, 2008 11:46 pm

— Mountain State’s Tony Brown had little trouble getting up for the Cougars’ game with Life Saturday.
Neither did Ermin Tarcin.
A.J. Pigram’s inspiration came a little late, but right on time.
All three played a key role in Mountain State’s 102-86 over one-time perennial power Life, back after a six-year hoops hiatus, at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center.
For Brown, who finished with 19 points, five assists and just one turnover, it was a chance to play against his younger brother, Life’s Greg Brown.
“We’ve been talking trash (about the game) for two weeks,” Brown said. “I guess I had to show him who the better brother was.”
Greg Brown finished with 10 points and two boards in the game.
For Tarcin, who has been playing extremely well of late, it was an important game because it was a big game.
“I guess I like the big games,” Tarcin said. “Sometimes I just have a feel for the game and today I felt that.”
Tarcin had 19 points and eight rebounds in the contest.
For Pigram, who finished with a game-high 21 points, it was, like the team, a little slow in starting.
He had two points at the break and MSU trailed 44-40.
Life (5-4) went up 50-42 early in the second half and Pigram got hot, if only for an instant.
After Tarcin made it 50-44, Pigram hit a deuce and then connected on a long three and was fouled.
He completed the rare four-point play with 17:15 left and then followed that with another three-ball. His nine points in less than two minutes gave MSU a lead it would never relinquish.
“Keep shooting or keep attacking,” said Pigram, who was 9-of-19 in the game (4-of-14 from three-point range). “I felt like I had to do something. We came out, I don’t know, bored, with the mentality that we were going to win. They came out fighting and we had to get going.”
Life kept in close. Then MSU (8-1) really turned up the heat, defensively, with Marcus Hunter lighting the fuse. The Cougars’ backup combo guard came in for Brown and sparked a 20-9 run to make it 87-72.
“I thought Marcus gave us a spark on offense and defense,” MSU coach Bob Bolen said. “We did a much better job of defense in the second half and as a result we shot the ball better. And I have to give credit to my assistants, coach (Dave) Barksdale and coach (Artis) Maddox, for coming up with a couple of ways to attack their pressure. That was a huge key.”
Greg Grimes finished with 17 points and six rebounds and Hunter had 12 points.
From there it was a race to MSU’s eighth 100-point game of the season (all at home). Pigram did the honors with a three from the baseline.
“We don’t care about that,” Brown said. “It’s nice. But I mean, we want a national championship. You don’t even get a trophy or a medal for scoring 100 a game.”
MSU outscored life 62-42 in the second half.
Life did take the lead at the break behind stellar shooting and lethargic, lagging Mountain State defense.
“We felt like we got accomplished what we wanted to accomplish, what we needed to stop them from doing, in the first half,” said Life coach John Barrett, who has a couple national title rings himself. “But when you play one of coach Bolen’s teams, especially here, you know they aren’t going to quit, they aren’t going to stop attacking. We’ll play anybody, anytime, anywhere. But there is a lot of pride here. That’s why we came here to play before and why we’re going to come here in the future. Playing a team like that shows you what you need to work on and we got a lesson tonight.”
Tay Barber led Life with 20 points. Markecio Beal had 11 and Greg Brown and Ken Moore 10 each.
As for Brown, he had a message for his brother after the game.
“I told him, ‘Get ready for another butt-whipping on Jan. 31 (when the teams meet in Marietta, Ga.),” Brown said.
MSU is at Crichton at 4 p.m. next Saturday. It will be the final game of the first semester.
— E-mail:
demorrison@register-herald.com

Mountain State 102, Life 86
Life 86
Tay Barber 7-16 4-4 20, Greg Brown 4-7 2-3 10, Jaquan Bray 3-9 0-1 6, Ken Moore 5-8 0-0 10, Jonathan Johnson 1-2 1-3 3, Mario Bennett 2-5 3-4 8, Brandon Moon 2-6 2-2 6, Vante Rucker 1-2 1-2 3, Ryan Daugherty 3-5 3-4 9, Markecio Beal 4-6 2-2 11. Totals: 32-67 18-24 86.
Mountain State 102
Anthony Pigram 8-19 1-1 21, Tony Brown 7-14 0-0 19, Greg Grimes 6-8 3-3 17, Bo Harris 3-8 0-3 6, Ermin Tarcin 8-12 3-3 19, Rashad Nesbitt 0-0 0-0 0, Marcus Hunter 3-6 6-6 12, Andrew Lee 3-7 2-5 8, Rod Green 0-0 0-0 0 Totals: 38-7415-21 102.
Halftime score — Life 44-40. Three-point goals — Life: 4-19 (Barber 2-5, Brown 0-2, Bray 0-1, Moore 0-1, Bennett 1-4, Moon 0-2, Rucker 0-1, Daugherty 0-1, Beal 1-2); MSU: 11-25 (Pigram 4-14, Brown 5-8, Grimes 2-2, Tarcin 0-1). Rebounds — Life: 42 (Johnson 7); MSU: 34 (Tarcin 8). Assists — Life: 16 (Barber 9); MSU: 24 (Lee 8). Fouled out — Life (Moore). Technical fouls — Life (Barber); MSU (Pigram). A — 498.

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