Sports Briefs: Bucs have no answers in 80-58 loss to Belmont

By Staff Reports

NASHVILLE — Consistently victimizing ETSU’s zone defense and connecting on 11 3-pointers on the night, the Belmont Bruins handed the Buccaneers an 80-58 defeat in Atlantic Sun Conference men’s basketball action Saturday evening at the Curb Event Center.

It marked ETSU’s sixth loss in its last nine A-Sun games, and dropped the Bucs to 13-13 overall, 7-8 in conference action. Meanwhile, Belmont improved to 21-7 overall, 13-2 in A-Sun play, and now owns sole possession of first place in the league standings.

“We thought we had a good plan and for the first 10 minutes of the game it was working for us,” said ETSU head coach Murry Bartow. “But they made a run and we didn’t play well during that stretch. Heck, they are one of the best offensive teams in the country and they scored 80 again tonight. They are a good team and we’re just not playing well right now.”

For the game, Belmont got a game high 18 points from guard Ian Clark, while both Hanlen and Kerron Johnson pitched in 15. Meanwhile, Scott Saunders and Blake Jenkins added 12 each.

For ETSU, junior guard Sheldon Cooley scored a team-high 13 points, while senior forward Isiah Brown netted 12. The Bucs shot just 37 percent from the floor and 20 percent from beyond the arc.

 

Lady Bucs Fall

Despite leading for over 36 minutes of the game, the ETSU women’s basketball team couldn’t overcome a second half meltdown, as freshman guard Katie Carroll buried a three in the corner with 16.4 seconds remaining to carry Belmont past the Lady Bucs, 49-44, on Saturday night inside the Curb Event Center.

After leading by as many as 13 points early in the second half and by 12 with less than 10 minutes to play, the Lady Bucs were outscored 24-7 in the final 9 minutes, 25 seconds, as Belmont capped off the stunning comeback victory.

 

GOLF

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Bill Haas wound up making the biggest putt of them all at Riviera.

On the second extra hole of a three-way playoff Sunday — made possible by clutch birdie putts from Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley on the final hole — Haas rolled in a 45-foot birdie putt across the 10th green to win the Northern Trust Open.

Haas closed with a 2-under 69 and won a PGA Tour event for the third straight year.

Haas, the FedEx Cup champion, captured his fourth career PGA Tour title and moved to No. 12 in the world.

Mickelson, who rallied from six shots behind with a 64 to win last week at Pebble Beach, was trying to become the first player since Tiger Woods in August 2009 to win back-to-back on the PGA Tour.

Mickelson and Bradley shot 71.

 

NASCAR

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The pack is back. And so is the Big One.

Kyle Busch edged Tony Stewart in a thrilling finish of the first race of 2012, using a sling-shot pass Saturday night on the last lap of the exhibition Budweiser Shootout to beat the defending NASCAR champion to the checkered flag.

It gave Busch a victory in a wild race that saw him use two incredible saves to stay in contention at Daytona International Speedway.

The event was a preview of next weekend’s season-opening Daytona 500, and showed that NASCAR has successfully broken up the two-car tandem racing that dominated restrictor-plate racing last year. Fans were overwhelmingly opposed to that style of racing, and NASCAR worked hard through the offseason to develop a rules package that would separate the cars.

It was obvious at the start that the new rules worked as the cars were lumped in a big pack from the drop of the green flag. It led to the first multi-car accident a mere nine laps into the race when David Ragan nudged Paul Menard to trigger the nine-car accident.

A later wreck with two laps remaining sent Jeff Gordon sliding on his roof for roughly 1,000 feet. The four-time NASCAR champion ultimately climbed out the window with his car still upside down, and said it was the first time in his career he’d been on his roof.

Gordon’s accident began when he ran into the back of Busch, who used his second save of the night to avoid the accident. An earlier save left fellow competitors in awe.

“There aren’t many people, ever, who could have done that,” said three-time champion Stewart, who was behind Busch on the first save.

Busch referenced his wild ride in Victory Lane.

“I don’t know how many times I spun out, but I didn’t spin out, you know?” he smiled.