By Stan Caldwell
stanmansportsfan.com
 
HATTIESBURG – There have been many times over the years when Clinton Gymnasium has been an unforgiving environment for visitors to the William Carey University campus.
 
Thursday night was one of those occasions for Tennessee Southern in men's basketball.
 
The seventh-ranked (NAIA) Firehawks came to town riding a 19-game winning streak and were undefeated in Southern States Athletic Conference play, but fell prey to some Clinton magic as the Crusaders scored a 76-69 upset.
 
UTS (23-3 overall) remains atop the SSAC standings at 17-1, but for another season Carey will remain the only team in history to go through the league play undefeated, which the Crusaders accomplished in 2012-13.
 
The victory also kept WCU (17-7, 12-5) in fourth place in the conference standings, a half-game behind Mobile and a half-game ahead of Life University.
 
"It's just a war when you play them," said Carey head coach Steve Knight. "Physically, they're the most disciplined team in our league. And what we did, with our traps and our man-to-man, they could not run their stuff the way they wanted to.
 
"This was a huge test for us. They beat us by 19 up there, and we need to understand that we're as good as anybody in this league, but there are times when we don't come out to play. Tonight we did."
 
To say this was a contentious affair would be understating the case by quite a lot. Before it was all over, the officiating crew dished out 10 technical fouls, with Firehawk coach Dugan Lyne and two players, one for each team, being ejected after receiving a second technical.
 
"Tough situation," said Knight. "It was a real physical game, and a game that didn't have a great flow to it, from an officiating standpoint. After the double technical, I think the officials had had enough. Open your mouth and you were going to get T'd up.
 
"It was unfortunate, but it helped us a good bit in making some free throws. We handled their physicality and were able to get fouled and go to the line."
 
It did indeed benefit the Crusaders, especially late in the game, when Carey pulled away in the final four minutes of play.
 
"It was for sure a crazy game," said junior Earl Smith. "We knew they were a good defensive team, so we knew we had to attack the weak areas.
 
"They're good at the close-out, and helping on defense, so we knew we had to move the ball around. They wanted to speed it up, and run with the ball, so we knew we had to guard them and play at our tempo."
 
Smith battled foul trouble in the second half, getting his fourth foul with 6:10 left in the game, but he was a difference-maker down the stretch for the Crusaders. He finished with 12 points, nine coming in the final 10 minutes of play.
 
"It was tough," said Smith. "Coach (Knight) took me out, but told me to be ready, you can't get that last foul. I just stayed in it and played my game."
 
WCU had the Firehawks on their heels from the outset, using an array of defensive looks to stymie the UTS attack. Tennessee Southern shot just 29.4 percent (10 of 34) from the field in the first and were just 1 of 10 from 3-point range.
 
"We listened to Coach P.J. (McCray)," said junior Ashton Campbell. "He harped on it all week in practice that we had to lock in to beat this team. It was just a little bit of everything, switching from man to zone, to the halfcourt trap. We brought it all."
 
Campbell had a 15 points and seven rebounds off the bench, both team highs, as the Carey reserves played a big role.
 
"We're all like brothers," said Campbell. "We know what we're supposed to do when we get in there. We've got to keep the tempo up and don't let down."
 
Carey led 33-26 at halftime, and led by as many as 10 points on five different occasions in the first 20 minutes. The margin might have been greater except for 12 turnovers, a problem for the Crusaders that was exacerbated in the second half.
 
"We wanted to get off to a good start in the second half, and we just kept turning the ball over," said Knight.
 
"Our spacing wasn't good, and they're really good at reaching in and grabbing at the ball. We cramming it in there trying to force things, and there was a lot of traffic in the middle."
 
The Crusaders had five turnovers in their first seven possessions in the second half, only getting a pair of 3-point attempts during that stretch. Carey finished with 24 turnovers for the game.
 
And the Firehawks exploited those mistakes to the max, reeling off 12 unanswered points, leading 38-33, before Campbell was able to drive the baseline for a layup.
 
That came directly after Carey junior Dylan Brumfield and Knight were both tagged with a technical after exchanging words with the officials.
 
"I think the technical foul, the first one Dylan got, and then I got one, that I really didn't think I deserved, but I think that got the crowd into it," said Knight. "We were down five, and for the next 10 possessions, it was loud. So I give them credit for jumping in there and spurring us on."
 
With the crowd behind them, the Crusaders kept UTS within range, and tied the game again 42-42, when Campbell drove the lane, drew a foul and converted the foul shot for a three-point play.
 
"They ran a couple of baseline cuts, one where Earl got, I think, his third foul early in the second half," said Knight. "They run it over and over, and we just weren't going to let them do that consistently. It was mainly man-to-man the first half, with a little bit of zone.
 
"Second half, they sort of figured out our ball-screen traps, so went to a 2-3 zone. But when they made a couple of shots off that, I told P.J., 'we've got to get out of that.' Then we went to our half-court trap and it was really good."
 
Tennessee Southern built another five-point lead, on a soft four-foot jump shot from the left side of the lane, but again Carey rallied.
 
Junior Kaeden Laws answered with a layup off a baseline drive – just beating the shot clock –and the Crusaders forced turnovers on three straight possessions before Smith tied it 50-50 with a 3-ball from the top of the key.
 
After a defensive stop, Laws stuck a missed 3-point shot back to give Carey the lead with 6:31 to play, and never trailed again.
 
UTS tied the game three more times, the last at 57-57 before Brumfield put WCU ahead for good, converting a one-and-one with 3:27 to play.
 
Firehawk senior Adarion Hudson made one of two foul shots to close the margin to one 59-58, but Smith answered with a pair of free throws. Carey hit 14 of 18 foul shots over the final four minutes of play, and that was the difference.
 
Six of those free throws came after technical fouls as things got wild in the last two minutes.
 
With 1:47 to play, Lyne got a technical for arguing a non-call on a missed shot, then immediately earned a second one for rushing onto the court to confront the officials, leading to his ejection.
 
Smith converted two of the four technical foul shots, then Campbell delivered the dagger with a 3-pointer from the left baseline to give Carey a 68-58 lead with 1:27 to play that would prove insurmountable.
 
Hudson led all scorers with 25 points, and senior Brady Brown added 16 points for Tennessee Southern. Senior Kolby Moore added 12 points, Brumfield had 11 points and junior Ankerion Gross scored 10 points for William Carey.
 
"That was a big win right there," said Smith. "We've been talking this game all week, getting prepared."
 
Knight's job now is to bring his team back to earth and get them ready for a visit from Blue Mountain at 2 p.m. Saturday. While the Toppers are in the bottom half of the SSAC standings at 5-12, they have been competitive all season.
 
"Now we've got to get ready for Blue Mountain," said Knight. "We can't have a letdown. Even though it doesn't look like they're a good team, record-wise, they guard as well as any team in the league. They're a very good man defensive team, and we have to be ready for that."