The AU men’s basketball team continued its hot streak, picking up its sixth straight win when it defeated the University of Maryland Baltimore County Retrievers 69-58 Dec. 1 at Bender Arena.
Charles Hinkle led the Eagles (6-2, 0-0 PL) with 18 points, highlighted by a 7-8 performance from the foul line. The senior forward has now scored in double digits in every game of the season so far.
Troy Brewer recorded 15 points for AU and Daniel Munoz tacked on 10, while Tony Wroblicky posted a career-high 13 rebounds.
Chase Plummer paced the Retrievers (0-7, 0-0 America East) with 18 points, while Ryan Cook added 13.
“The object of the game obviously is to win, so we accomplished that,” AU Head Coach Jeff Jones said. “To be perfectly honest, that’s about all that we accomplished. I am definitely not pleased.”
Jones thought many players suffered from fatigue on the night.
“I thought that UMBC out-hustled us for much of the game,” Jones said. “I thought some of our guys who have been playing a lot of minutes gave in to fatigue, and if that’s going to be the case, that’s not a good sign. Good players find a way to fight through fatigue and gut it out and don’t give in to it.”
Brewer had a different take, instead pointing to UMBC’s poor start to the season as the reason for the team’s lackluster effort.
“I wouldn’t say it’s fatigue,” Brewer said. “But I would say we made the mistake that most teams do, which is when you [play a winless team], you don’t come out as prepared the way we have in other games.”
The Eagles struggled for most of the first half to make their shots, holding only a six-point lead on the Retrievers at most through the opening 20 minutes.
Blake Jolivette entered the game off the bench with 12:30 remaining in the first half and gave the Eagles a spark, hitting a jumper from the top of the arc off Brewer’s handoff and a 3-pointer less than three minutes later.
The half ended with the Eagles leading 37-32 on a pair of 3-pointers from Munoz and Brewer.
AU started the second half looking like a different team, getting to the free throw line a lot more than they had in the first. The Eagles shot 62 percent from the line in the second half (17-25), compared to 43 percent in the first (3-7).
After Jolivette went 1-2 from the line on an aggressive drive to the net, the Eagles extended their lead to 53-43 with 8:59 to play.
AU began to draw fouls all over the floor, as a desperate UMBC team began to put the full-court press on the Eagles. Hinkle and Munoz went a combined 11-14 from the line.
“For me, I just try to lead by example I guess,” Hinkle said. “We’re just trying to move the ball around, take good shots. That’s what Coach Jones has been harping on, just us taking good shots. Especially me and Troy, not trying to force it. Sometimes we do that, but we’re just trying to make good decisions out there.”
The schedule gets more difficult for the Eagles, as they will next face St. Joseph’s University Dec. 4 at Bender Arena before tackling Georgetown University and Villanova University in upcoming games.
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