Miller’s Career-High 32 Lifts UNCG To SoCon Regular Season Crown
from www.uncgspartans.com:
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – Isaiah Miller’s final regular season game as a UNC Greensboro (UNCG) men’s basketball player was one to cherish.
The 6 foot, 1 inch senior guard dominated and willed UNCG to a satisfying, 85-74, overtime triumph over East Tennessee State at Freedom Hall in a Southern Conference contest Saturday. His banked 3-pointer overtime kickstarted a decisive 12-0 UNCG burst that proved to be the difference in the contest.
In scoring 21 of his points after intermission, Miller finished with a career-best 32 markers on 13-of-19 shooting. He also added seven rebounds, seven assists, and four steals. This was Miller’s second 30-point game of the season and the third of his fabulous career.
UNCG later learned that it earned the regular season championship and the No, 1 seed after Wofford defeated Furman, 74-73. The Spartans will open the SoCon Tournament against No. 8 The Citadel or No. 9 Western Carolina on Saturday, March 5 at 12 p.m.
Help arrived by the bushel for Miller, who at times produced a personal highlight reel of spectacular plays during the contest. Miller ended the first half with a buzzer-beating jumper, his third such shot this season and second this week. He also had a windmill dunk midway through the second half to tie the game at 50-50 and a sweet reverse layup late in overtime.
Kaleb Hunter added 16 points and made several crucial baskets during the second half. Keyshaun Langley(Southwest Guilford High School) scored 14 points. His 3-pointer from the corner in overtime gave UNCG the lead for good, 75-72, with 2 minutes, 58 seconds remaining.
Hayden Koval contributed 13 points and three blocked shots in 24 minutes. Mohammed Abdulsalam pulled down nine rebounds and blocked two shots for UNCG.
Records
UNCG 18-8 overall, 13-5 SoCon
ETSU 12-11, 8-7
Quotable
UNCG head coach Wes Miller on Isaiah Miller’s performance.
“He was terrific. He’s been terrific for four years and he just hives you everything he has. I don’t have enough words to describe how terrific he’s been. He was special tonight.”
Wes Miller on UNCG’s offense.
We have a lot of good offensive players and it hasn’t felt like it’s come together top to bottom offensively for us at all this year. When two or three guys outside of Isaiah have good offensive nights, we’re a good basketball team. Tonight, Keyshaun, Hayden and Kaleb made some big plays for us. I thought Kaleb’s pull-up jumper in front of our bench was such a big shot to put us up by one.”
Inside The Numbers
UNCG finished with 13 SoCon wins, the most of any conference program.
This was the fifth consecutive year that UNCG has won at least 13 SoCon games.
UNCG defeated every SoCon program this season at least once.
UNCG was the only SoCon team to play all 18 conference contests.
The Spartans finished with 10 road victories.
This was UNCG’s 66th victory by double figures since 2016.
Miller’s previous career best was 31 points against Mercer on Jan. 1, 2020.
This was Miller’s 25th double digit game this season and the 97th of his career.
For his career Miller has 1,883 points and 307 steals.
In two games this past week against Western Carolina and ETSU, Miller averaged 30 points, 6.5 rebounds, 6.5 assists, and 4.5 steals.
Hunter has scored in double figures in three straight games and in five of UNCG’s last six contests.
This was Hunter’s 13th game in double figures this season and the 31st of his career.
Langley reached double digits for 12th time this season and fifth straight game.
Langley made 23 3-pointers in UNCG’s last six games.
Langley has made at least three 3-pointers in six straight games.
Koval was one short of his season-high point total.
Koval has 331 career blocked shots, which is 55th in NCAA history.
UNCG limited ETSU to 38.7 percent shooting and 2-of-12 in overtime.
This was UNCG’s first overtime game since last year against Wofford.
The game featured 19 lead changes and 16 ties.
Ledarrius Brewer led three Bucs in double figures with 18 points, six rebounds and five assists.
Vonnie Patterson (13 points) and David Sloan (12) also reached double digits.
Silas Adheke and Damari Monsanto grabbed 12 rebounds each for the Bucs.