In the 1st ever meeting between the 2 schools, the Dawgs dashed out to a 38-15 halftime lead but had to hold on for dear life in the 2nd half before taking the win. The 1st half was really a thing of beauty - probably the best half the Dawgs have played in quite some time. The defense was stellar! We rebounded and shot very well. We had a 20-2 run to finish the half. I don't know what has gotten into Bridges - he played 4 minutes and got 1 reb with no pts or even shots. Anselem wasn't much better with 15 mutes, 4 rebs and no pts. And the Hawks were whipping us in the post quite a bit. No good team can rely solely on jump shots; you have to be able to get something in the paint. As a team, we only shot 24% in the 2nd half and that almost cooked our goose. We only made 6 shots from the field the whole 2nd half, but 14 pts from the FT line helped us maintain our lead. We outrebounded the Hawks 45-33 for the game. Moncrieffe and Holt had 7 rebs each and Oquendo had 5 to pace us. We allowed the Hawks' pressure and their chipping away at our lead to affect our play in the 2nd half but held on. The Hawks, a team that lives and dies by the 3, was only 2-16 from deep for the game, which was somewhat affected by our defense. Today's game with UAB will probably be tough. They have brought in a lot of talent through the portal, and Andy Kennedy is a good coach.