The Athens Bulldogs opened up their season at home with a 74-45 victory against the Morgan Raiders.
The 29-point margin of victory would suggest a blowout, but it wasn’t always as easy as the score would portray. The Bulldogs trailed most of the first half, and had only a 36-31 halftime lead after switching to their full-court press.
Coach Jeff Skinner credited his opponent for their first-half play.
“Morgan absolutely shot lights out in the first half,” he said.
With the Raiders shooting so well, the Bulldogs changed their strategy, and switched to the full-court press that was so effective.
“The second half we extended our defense and pressed them, and they just really didn’t have an answer for that,” Skinner said.
The Bulldogs had 20 steals as a team, largely as a result of the pressure. Many of those steals led to layups, Skinner said, as Athens shot 62% from the field.
Senior Josh Skinner led the team with seven steals to go with his 10 points.
The Bulldogs also received strong contributions from their pair of freshmen, Ryan Luehrman and Joey Burrows.
The six-foot-three Luehrman led the team with 17 points on 8-for-11 shooting and tied for the team high in rebounds with six.
“Ryan Luehrman gives us a guy that can go off the dribble or shoot the perimeter shot, and he runs the floor and rebounds really well,” Skinner said.
The six-foot-two Burrows added ten points to go with his team-leading five assists.
“These two freshmen are long and they’re talented, and last night, they had terrific games,” Skinner said.
The duo played with the varsity squad all offseason, and have also gained valuable experience playing AAU basketball.
“Those guys have played a lot of basketball at a high level,” Skinner said. “They’re freshmen, but they’re really not freshmen.”
Still, Skinner said the seniors hold this team together.
“The core of our team is our seniors,” he said. “Our seniors have to lead us and do all the dirty-work and allow the freshman to play without pressure.”
