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Dalton State College Athletics

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Men's Basketball - Kingston Frazier
66
Dalton State (Ga.) DS
68
Winner Loyola (La.) LOY
Dalton State (Ga.) DS
66
Final
68
Loyola (La.) LOY
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Dalton State (Ga.) DS 22 44 66
Loyola (La.) LOY 28 40 68

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | | Erik Simpson, Sports Informaiton Director

Roadrunners Gave It Their All, Come Up Just Short


MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Dalton State almost completed the comeback, but a field goal from Eric Brown with 18.7 seconds left is all (RV) Loyola (La.) needed as they held on for a 68-66 win in the quarterfinals of the SSAC Tournament at the Cramton Bowl Multiplex in Montgomery, Ala. on Thursday afternoon.
 
THE FIRST HALF
The Roadrunners got the first bucket of the game as Kingston Frazier sent a pass in to Sean Chislom who finished it off. Loyola got on the board shortly after with a three ball from Ethan Turner and a 3-2 lead. Two more shots from behind the arc from Turner gave the Wolf Pack a 9-2 lead at the 17:13 mark.
 
It continued to be tough sledding early on the offensive end for Dalton State. As the cold spell hit, Loyola built a nine-point lead at 14-5 as the clock passed the halfway mark of the first half. The Roadrunners began to chip away at the lead with an Elijah Staley basket with 8:33 left to play.
 
After a few traded buckets, Dalton State clicked off seven-straight to get within two points at 18-16 with 5:35 remaining. Loyola answered the call with three-pointer from Benjamin Fields to get the lead back to five. Little-by-little Dalton State reduced the lead. The deficit was down to three as the Roadrunners scored with 17 ticks on the clock.
 
With time running down, the Wolf Pack quickly got the ball up court with the intentions of finding Turner for another three. With Turner bottled up, he passed to Fields who hit a shot from distance as the buzzer sounded. At the half, Loyola held a 28-22 lead.
 
THE SECOND HALF
The Wolf Pack quickly extend the lead to 10 points at the start of the second half on back-to-back buckets from Turner and Myles Burns. Two Turner free throws with 14:42 left to play drew the lead out to 14 points at 43-29. It would be the largest lead of the contest for either team.
 
Dalton State continued to scrap and claw their way back into the game, but Loyola kept them at bay. With 8:01 to go, the Roadrunners cut the lead to 10 points, 54-44, after a Frazier trey. From there, they got field goals from Chislom and Staley to get it to six points. Another triple from Turner, one of his seven on the day, halted the DS attack and put the lead back to nine points, 57-48.
 
With 3:33 remaining, Dalton State gave in one more crack. A three ball from Sean Cranney cut the Wolf Pack lead to four, 60-56. Frazier then stole the inbound and layed it in to cut it to shave the lead to two, 60-58. Wolf Pack free throws after missed Roadrunner field goals put the score at 66-60.
 
Randy Bell then slashed to the hole and drew a foul. He hit both shots from the charity stripe to make the score 66-62. Dalton State turned up the pressure in the full court and created a turnover. Cranney tossed it down court to a streaking Bell, and just like that, the lead was two, 66-64.
 
After a defensive stop, Dalton State headed to their end of the court down two points and time ticking away. Cranney dribbled out of trouble and passed down to the wing to Staley. He executed some pretty footwork to bounce out and hit a long two with 24 ticks left. The Roadrunners were a with a toe of taking the lead as that is what Staley had touching the three-point line.
 
With the ball Brown raced down court for the Wolf Pack. He dribbled into trouble, but found a space to jump and get off a shot. It tickled the bottom of the twine to give Loyola the lead once more, 68-66. Coach Ireland called timeout to draw up an important play. It was executed perfectly as Cranney drove in and dished back out to Chislom who ran out of a screen to get open. His three looked good, but knocked the front of the iron and off. Cranney was in the perfect position and snagged the board. His shot attempt went off the glass and into the hands of Burns who was quickly fouled.
 
Burns went to the line and missed both opportunities to set Dalton State up with one more throw to the goal. Surprisingly, Loyola did not press as Tyler Phillips got the ball to Frazier at half court. He took two dribbles and threw up a prayer. It would hit off the front iron as the buzzer sounded and Loyola advanced to the semifinals with a 68-66 win.
 
THE REST OF THE STORY
Dalton State drops to (18-13 overall, 13-9 SSAC) with the loss, while (RV) Loyola (La.) improves to (19-11 overall, 13-9 SSAC) with the win and advances to play the winner of #5 Stillman (Ala.)/Martin Methodist (Tenn.) tomorrow, March 1.
 
The Roadrunners had four players score in double-figures, led by the senior duo of Elijah Staley and Sean Chislom. Both big men had 17 points and six rebounds each. Chislom also threw in three assists and one block. Randy Bell added 16 points, six boards, and three assists, while Kingston Frazier netted 11 points, seven rebounds, and five assists.
 
Loyola was led by the sharpshooting Ethan Turner with a career-high 25 points on 7-of-12 shooting from distance. Benjamin Fields had another great game against Dalton State with 13 points, with Eric Brown coming through with 11 points including the game winner.
 
The Dalton State defense did their part in containing the fab freshman combination of Zach Wrightsil and Myles Burns. Together the duo only managed 13 points and 17 rebounds, well below the season averages of both.
 
DS won on the glass, 39-35, and in the paint, 26-14, but had trouble stopping the three ball as Loyola hit 11-of-25 triples on the day for a 44% clip. In contrast, the Roadrunners hit 7-of-19 (36.8%) from distance.
 
A cold first half, 9-for-25 (36%), led way to a more Roadrunner like second half as Dalton State shot 44.7% (17-for-38) from the field. Loyola shot 46% in the second half, but the DS defense limited them to just 26 shots from the field.
 
UP NEXT
Dalton State will head home and await their fate to see if they are one of the 32 teams selected to play in the NAIA Tournament in Kansas City, Mo. on March 20-26.

 
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