WISE – The Cavaliers fell in their first matchup against a top 25 opponent this season losing 78-68 to No. 16 North Georgia Saturday.
It was reigning Peach Belt Conference Player of the Year Frank Champion and reigning Peach Belt Freshman of the Year AJ White that propelled North Georgia to the victory. The two combined for 46 of UNG's 78 points, each scoring 23. The 6-foot-7, 220 lb junior forward Champion had a double-double adding 10 assists and 7 rebounds to his 23-point performance.
Early in the first half, after receiving a technical foul in the early minutes, Champion recorded his second foul at the 8:19 mark and sat almost the entirety of the rest of the first half.
However, UVA Wise struggled to take advantage of the big man being on the bench, only scoring 15 points the rest of the half to head into the break tied with the Nighthawks at 28-28.
Both teams struggled with foul trouble in the first half, as both Champion and UVA Wise sophomore guard Patrick Shelley sat for almost 10 minutes with 2 fouls each.
In the second half, it was the Cavs who cycled through numerous players as a multitude of guys racked up fouls.
In total, the Cavs finished with 25 team fouls in the game as four different players recorded four or more fouls. Shelley and senior forward Rron Ukaj each fouled out in the game.
The second half started just as tight as the first half. Both teams traded buckets to a tie score of 41-41. Then North Georgia struck fire on offense.
AJ White missed a mid range jumper at the 13:55 mark in the second half. North Georgia would not miss another shot from the floor until there was just 2:33 left in the game. In that span the Nighthawks went 9-for-9 from the floor and outscored the Cavs 27-16 to take a 67-57 lead.
By then, UVA Wise had struggled so much on offense, the Cavs' only hope was to play the foul game and try to knock down multiple three pointers on the other end. It did not work as UVA Wise fell 78-68.
North Georgia backed its extremely high preseason expectations in the win. After going 21-8 last year, head coach Dan Evans returned 11 players from last season's squad including Champion, White and 11.7 point per game scorer Giancarlo Bastianoni who was sidelined with an injury Saturday. North Georgia had three starters and four players in total out with injuries against UVA Wise.
UVA Wise had been one of the best teams in the country in bench points, fastbreak points, points off turnovers and three-point shooting through the first three games this season.
In Saturday's contest, the Cavs only got production in the form of 19 bench points, six fastbreak points, nine points off 18 UNG turnovers and shot just 9-for-32 (28.1 percent) from deep.
In total, the Cavs shot 23-for-59 (39 percent) from the floor in the loss.
With the defeat, UVA Wise falls to 2-2 on the season while North Georgia remains undefeated at 3-0. The Cavs have another home game before the holiday as they welcome Southern Wesleyan on Tuesday, Oct. 21 at 6:30 p.m.
