December in D.C. is cold, and cold means snow, but at Bender Arena Saturday it rained 3's. Twenty-five of them to be exact, and in the AU men's basketball matchup with Towson, that divulged a little secret: Freshman Garrison Carr likes to shoot, and unlike most of his teammates, he's allowed to jack up the 3-ball whenever he wants.
"He's got a special skill, so we give him a little more leeway than we might normally give," coach Jeff Jones said of Carr's 6-for-10 3-point exhibition.
After AU shot 28.9 percent from three through the first seven games, few expected to hear the words "leeway" and "3-pointer" used in the same sentence by Jones.
But the Eagles never stalled and drained a plentiful 15 of 31 3's as a team, setting a new team record for 3-pointers made.
So, if your counting skills are poor or you're too slap-happy from studying for finals, let's recap the made 3-pointers. Six for Carr, five for junior Andre Ingram, three for junior Arvydas Eitutavicius and one for junior Linas Lekavicius equals history.
And for the Eagles, history equals swagger.
"We need something we can hang our hat on and say, 'We do that well,'" Jones said after a losing performance against George Mason Dec. 5 at the BB&T Classic.
Well, the hats are hung and the shoes appear laced as AU extended its winning streak to two behind the shooting of Carr and Ingram.
Eagles get offensive on the glass
The Eagles, finally wearing the home whites instead of the road blues, got serious production on the glass. They outrebounded the Tigers, 41-28.
Critics will certainly look back on Saturday's game and remember the 3-point barrage. But without the AU rebounding advantage that included 17 offensive boards for nine second-chance points, the hot shooting wouldn't have had a chance to reign. And for a team struggling to find its identity, taking care of the glass could be just what the doctor ordered.
ACC presence on the sideline
Saturday's game was an Atlantic Coast Conference coaching reunion for Jones and Towson's Pat Kennedy.
While at Virginia from 1990-1998, Jones held an 8-6 advantage in contests against Kennedy, who was at Florida State. Jones has won both games they've faced eachother at Towson and AU.
Line changing
The Eagles have gone through four different sets of starters. The lineup of Eitutavicius, Ingram and Derrick Mercer at guard and Brayden Billbe and Jordan Nichols at forward has started twice, yielding a win each time.
