The UMBC Retrievers' long climb back to respectability hit a serious detour last night in a showdown for second place with Big South rival Charleston Southern at UMBC Fieldhouse.
The Buccaneers used a 21-2 run early in the second half to gain a 49-31 advantage and survived UMBC's furious late rally to win, 72-62, before a crowd of 1,728.
It was the fifth straight conference victory for Charleston Southern (12-9, 8-3). UMBC dropped to 9-12, 6-5 in the league.
And the Retrievers, who had used a suffocating defense to win eight of their previous 12 games, had the tables turned last night as they managed to shoot only 32 percent (21-for-65) against the Bucs' tight policing.
"We didn't execute all night," said UMBC coach Earl Hawkins. "It seemed like we never had all five guys in sync. We had too many guys trying to do things on their own.
"In the first half, we had open shots, and didn't make them. And, in the second half, when they turned up their defense, we didn't find ways to get guys open."
UMBC was nine of 30 in the first half.
Charleston Southern also struggled offensively most of the first half when they shot 36 percent from the field.
The Bucs seemed intimidated by the 7-foot-2 presence of Pascal Fleury under the basket in the first 10 minutes when they fell behind, 15-9. But they adjusted and hit seven of their last 11 shots to gain a 26-23 lead at halftime.
UMBC momentarily reclaimed the lead, 29-28, on a spin move by Fleury (11 points, nine rebounds, six blocks), but the Retrievers managed only one field goal in the next 7 1/2 minutes as Charleston's backcourt of senior Eric Burks (21 points) and sophomore Brett Larrick sparked the 21-2 spree with perimeter shooting.
"When UMBC went to their zone, we reversed the ball real quick and got open shots," said Burks, the All-South choice who transferred from Clemson in 1992.
"In the first half, we were trying to shoot the ball over Fleury. Once we started to go right at him, we had a lot more success."
While the Buccaneers found a comfort zone, the Retrievers struggled until it was too late.
Charleston Southern led 56-36 with just under six minutes left when its defense lost its tenacity.
Eric Wyatt (18 points) and Tony Thompson sponsored the late surge that reduced the deficit to 68-60 with 12 seconds remaining, but that futile rally did not fool Hawkins.
"We had a challenge to tie this team for second place, and we just weren't up to it," he said.
Reminded that his team's two top scorers--Tony Thompson and Marc Lay--sat out most of the first half because of foul trouble, Hawkins said, "We can't use that as an excuse. They played in the second half, and we still didn't get the job done."
Down the hall, Gary Edwards, who notched his 99th victory at Charleston Southern, was applauding his defense.
"Our defense has been solid all season," he said. "It's our offense that's been kind of shaky.
"But in the conference, our defense has been holding rival teams to 40 percent shooting or less. If you do that, you can win a lot of games even if your offense doesn't always show up."
The Buccaneers, however, shot a solid 56 percent in the second half (14- 25), with Burks as the principal threat.
Asked about his transfer, the fluid 6-foot-1 guard who is averaging 20.2 points, said, "I wasn't unhappy at Clemson. I started most of my freshman and sophomore year. But the school had some probation problems. It was just a good time to leave."