Fort Benning Knights fall to Fort Gordon Eagles 100-92

By John W. PeelerJanuary 23, 2014

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Fort Benning Black Knights Anthony McMillian (1) guards a Fort Gordon shooter during Saturday's contest at the Smith Fitness Center Gym. Fort Benning lost the high-scoring affair 100-92. The Black Knights will be home again Feb. 1 against Kessler Ai... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT BENNING, Ga., (Jan. 22, 2014) -- The Fort Benning Knights post basketball team played host to the Fort Gordon Eagles Saturday at the Smith Fitness Center with the Eagles going home with a 100-92 win.

During the first half, the Knights stayed on top for most of the first period, but trailed at the six-minute mark following an eight-point run by the Eagles.

The Knights put together an eight-point run of their own and went into halftime leading 45-39.

Turnovers and missed shots plagued the Knights in the second half and halfway through the second half, the Eagles went up on the Knights 80-74.

The Knights battled back to cut the Eagles lead to one point with two minutes remaining in the game, but the Eagles, who played man-to-man most of the game, backed off into a 2-3 zone defense to protect their lead.

With the lead, the Eagles controlled the offensive and defensive boards and went on a five point run to go up on the Knights for good. The Eagles went to the free-throw line with only seconds left in the game to cap off their 100-92 win.

Fort Benning coach James Johnson said the first half went pretty much the way he had envisioned it, but went into the halftime with a smaller lead than he had anticipated.

"We wanted to keep the tempo up," he said. "We played our tempo and ran pretty much our 2-3 zone for most of the game but went into the half with a small lead."

Johnson said with the way the game was going, he had to make some adjustments on defense.

"Their cutters were cutting to the middle of the key, which was giving them open looks right under the basket," he said. "So, by the second half, our energy level dropped and they were getting some easy looks, and then they hit a couple of three-pointers, which changed the momentum back to them."

Johnson said the team tried to regain the momentum, but never could seem to get it swing back their way.

"We would get close," he said, "but we would just turn the ball back over unnecessarily. "We rushed when we didn't need to."

He said he had set his team up for the press defense the Eagles played, but it didn't go the way they had drawn it up.

"We were set up to break the press and we tried to dribble through it," he said, "but we passed when we didn't need to and we missed a lot of layups right up under the basket, and that hurt us too."

The Black Knights will be home again Feb. 1 against Kessler Air Force Base before closing out the regular season on the road Feb. 8 against Duke Field.