Box Score

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Elon senior Chris Long sank two free throws with 8:33 remaining in the contest to reach 1,000 career points and scored a team-high 21 points as the Phoenix basketball team defeated the host UNC Greensboro Spartans at the Greensboro Coliseum on a snowy Monday night in Southern Conference hoops action. Elon (8-8, 2-3) has won four of its last five contests and three straight road games. The Spartans dropped to 0-15 overall, 0-5 in league play.

“We knew this would be a battle,” Elon head coach Matt Matheny noted. “UNCG has played a difficult schedule and is an improved basketball team. The most important thing to us in every game is to get better. We want to be playing our best basketball in March.”

Elon dominated the glass, holding a 46-33 advantage in the rebounding column. The Phoenix also made it to the free throw line a season-high 38 times, shooting 29-of-38 (76.3 percent) on the night. The Elon defense held UNCG to a 32.3 percent clip from the floor, a season-low by a Phoenix opponent this year. In the last two contests, Elon opponents are shooting 33.6 percent from the field.

Long made 20 trips to the charity stripe, knocking down 16 freebies en route to his fourth 20+ point game of the season. He became the 33rd player in Elon history to eclipse the 1,000-point barrier.

Junior Drew Spradlin had his most efficient shooting night of the season, draining 8-of-12 field goals for 18 points. The guard is averaging 22 points over the last two contests. Freshman Jack Isenbarger also scored in double figures with 16 points while adding five rebounds in the win. Sophomore Roger Dugas pulled down a team-best 11 rebounds. The Spartans’ Brian Cole came off the bench to score 15 points on 3-of-4 from beyond the arc.

With Elon trailing 17-16 at the 8:43 mark of the first half, Dugas converted an old-fashioned three-point play to jump-start an 11-0 Phoenix stretch that gave Elon a 27-17 lead with 6:32 on the clock. Isenbarger knocked down two treys during the run to help Elon to an advantage it would never relinquish.

The home team made it a six-point game on a Cole long ball with 3:50 to go before the half, 34-28. Long netted seven of Elon’s final nine first-half points, including a triple in the Phoenix’s final possession of the period, to lift Elon to a 43-33 lead at the break.

Elon was an impressive 12-of-22 from the field after 20 minutes of action, while UNCG managed only 10-of-33 from the floor.

A jumper by Spradlin with 16:48 remaining in the contest opened up the biggest lead of the night for the Phoenix at 50-36. An Aloysius Henry dunk capped an 11-3 Greensboro run that spanned the next three minutes as the Spartans made it a six-point game, 53-47, with 13:33 to go.

After an Elon timeout, the visitors scored five unanswered points to push the lead back to double figures, but UNCG wasn’t going down easily. Another Spartan streak trimmed the advantage to only four, 63-59, with just over seven minutes to play. Elon answered and outscored UNCG 17-6 over the remainder of the contest to seal the victory.

Elon will look to make it three straight conference victories as it continues a three-game road stretch with a trip to Cullowhee, N.C. to take on the Western Carolina Catamounts on Thursday, January 13 at 7 p.m.