Kaase’s effort, in which he scored 18 second half points on 8-of-13 shooting from the floor, helped the Tigers erase a 13-point deficit. Meanwhile, NC Wesleyan’s Tommy Moore countered for the Bishops with 22 points and 11 rebounds of his own as NCWC fell to its fourth nationally-ranked opponent of the season.
North Carolina Wesleyan opened the game on an 18-5 run sparked by eight points from Moore. The Tigers closed the gap to one point, 22-21, thanks to a 16-4 run of their own paced by a pair of Drew Prehmus (Atlanta, GA/Wesleyan) three pointers and back-to-back buckets by Kaase.
NC Wesleyan answered with an 8-0 run to push the Bishops advantage to nine points, 29-21, on Tommy Moore’s layup with 2:11 to play in the half, but a pair of Aaron Lewek (Raleigh, NC/Leesville Road) free throws cut the NCWC advantage to six, 29-23, with just over a minute to play. Jarmel Arrington then ended the first half with a thunderous dunk in traffic to give the Bishops an eight point halftime lead, 31-23.
Tyler Murray (Atlanta, GA/Harrison) nailed his first career three-pointer to give Hampden-Sydney its first lead of the game, 36-35, with 16:23 to play as the Tigers opened the second half on a 13-4 run. North Carolina Wesleyan again mounted a charge, taking a 42-41 lead, their final of the game, on a Stephen Mobley jumper with 13:44 remaining.
The Tigers immediately answered Mobley’s basket with an Aaron Lewek layup and H-SC built as much as a six point lead, 53-47, on the eighth of ten straight points by Kaase midway through the half. The Bishops did not fold however, cutting the Tiger advantage to three twice, 58-55, on a Lenny Hall trifecta and, 65-62, on an Arrington layup, but free throws by captains Matt Guill (Emmaus, PA/Emmaus) and Matt Green (Richmond, VA/Thomas Dale) over the final 17 seconds sealed the Tigers’ seventh win of the year.
“It was definitely a tale of two halves in this game,” said Tiger head coach Bubba Smith. “To North Carolina Wesleyan’s credit they made us play a little faster than we wanted in the first half. In the second half we got good possessions the first five times down the floor to get back in the game and then our guys just did a great job of finding Troy (Kaase).”
Kaase led all players with his 26 points and 13 rebounds and was helped by sophomore teammate Tyler Murray who finished with 11 points. The Tigers, who averaged better than 56 percent shooting from the floor coming into the game, made just 26-of-70 (37.1%) from the floor and canned just 6-of-19 (31.6%) from beyond the arc.
Moore’s 22 and 11 paced the Bishops, while Jarmel Arrington dropped in 15. North Carolina Wesleyan shot 44.8 percent (26-for-58) from the floor and made just 3-of-14 (21.4%) from three point range, but out-rebounded the Tigers, 43-41.
Hampden-Sydney returns to action December 29-30 as the Tigers host the 2005 Car Coop/Weenie Miller Memorial Holiday Hoops Tournament with Neumann College, SUNY Old-Westbury and Wheaton College (Mass.). Hampden-Sydney plays SUNY Old Westbury at 2 pm on December 29, while Wheaton and Neumann match up at 4 pm on December 30. The games will be broadcast live on FM 95.7 WFLO and on the internet at www.hsc.edu/athletics.