Joe WeeksAssistant Sports Editor
Joe Weeks
Junior Tim Duncan shows Nancy of France what a preseason All-American can do.
The team name Nancy of France may not strike fear into opponents' hearts, but it connoted quite enough problems for the Demon Deacon men's basketball team in its 1995-96 debut game Saturday night in Joel Coliseum.
The French professional team, after nearly being blown off the hardwood in the first half of the Deacons' exhibition, rallied in the second half to outscore the Deacons 49-31 in the last 20 minutes to steal an 80-78 win.
In an ominous turn of events, the Europeans shocked the Deacons on the evening of the day that it was released that sophomore guard Jerry Braswell is academically ineligible for the fall semester portion of the team's season. The loss was largely due to the lackluster play the home team elicited from its slew of inexperienced guards.
The possibility that Braswell's suspension may be extended to cover the entire season does not bode well for the Deacons, especially in light of Saturday's occurrence.
The Deacons' performance against their French foes was a fine example of role reversal. After smoothly executing their way to a 47-31 halftime lead, thanks largely to phenomenal shooting from the floor, the Deacons came out with a flat defensive effort in the second half and allowed Nancy to steadily chip its way back into the game.
With less than a minute to go in the contest, Nancy had clawed its way to a two-point lead, and after junior center Tim Duncan was fouled on the Deacons' next possession, the Deacons were forced to rely on Duncan's two free throws to level the score.
Duncan drained both of the foul shots, and the Deacons went on the defensive with the game tied at 78.
However, Nancy forward Derrick Lewis was subsequently able to put in a miss by teammate Herve Dubuisson to give his team a two-point lead with 12.2 seconds to play, and sophomore Deacon guard Tony Rutland was then unable to find Duncan with an errant pass after penetrating deeply into the Nancy defense on the final play of the game.
Despite the loss, the Deacons played the first 20 minutes of their season in surprisingly fluid fashion. Lead by Duncan's 12 first-half points (on perfect six-for-six shooting from the floor) the Deacons shot an impressive 65.5 percent before halftime.
"I think we played well in the first half," Head Coach Dave Odom said after the game.
"We got lots of open-court baskets, our offense was clicking, and our fast break was clicking. I thought defensively we were pretty good, and I thought we rebounded the ball well.
"I was very surprised, really, that we played as well as we did the first half," Odom said.
Junior forwards Ricky Peral and Sean Allen also had strong first halves. Peral went four-for-eight from the floor (including one-for-three from three point range) in the first half, and he scored the first points of the Deacons' season on a jam from the left baseline. Allen, meanwhile, shot a perfect three-for-three from the floor and two-for-two from the free throw line before the intermission.
The play of Allen, who finished with 15 points in the game, was especially encouraging for the Deacons, as it provided a preliminary solution to the personnel problem the Deacons have at power forward this season. Allen also tallied five rebounds and a team-leading three steals in the contest and played with an intensity that the rest of the team struggled to generate.
The second half saw the Deacons' execution on both sides of the ball come to a grinding halt, as none of the home team's assortment of guards proved able to either take away the perimeter shot on defense or run a coordinated offensive attack.
"Our offense went stagnant," Odom said of the second half. "We had no movement. They alternated between zone and man (defense). We didn't handle that very well."
Rutland, particularly, seemed as though he may not be completely ready to assume the role of Deacon floor general. The sophomore guard hit only one-of-six shots from the floor in the second half (he finished with 10 points on three-of-11 shooting), and turned the ball over five times in the contest.
Partly as a result of Rutland's poor decision-making, the Deacons' performance on the offensive end of the floor suffered in the second half. In Braswell's absence, neither sophomore guard Steven Goolsby nor freshmen guards Joseph Amonett or Armond Wilson seemed comfortable at shooting guard, though Goolsby did manage to hit three treys and finish with 11 points.
"I thought down the stretch our inexperience at guard showed," Odom said. "We didn't get into the sets we wanted to."
Duncan, meanwhile, put together a very quietly dominating 38 minutes. Though the center had problems at times with the smaller, quicker Lewis, he finished the game with a rounded stat line that reflected his very solid performance: 26 points on 11-14 shooting, 12 rebounds, and five blocked shots.
The Deacons will play their second and final exhibition game of the season Saturday against the Charlotte Royals. The game will begin 30 minutes after the conclusion of the football game against N.C. State, which begins at 1 p.m.