GREENSBORO — The nation’s longest winning streak is toast, swatted away by blocked shot after blocked shot.
And just like that, the last two weeks of the Southern Conference season just got a whole lot more interesting.
Francis Alonso scored 20 points and 6-foot-10 sophomore James Dickey blocked eight shots to set a UNCG single-game record, and the Spartans defeated East Tennessee State 74-56 before a black-clad crowd of 4,179 at the Greensboro Coliseum on Monday night.
Point guard Demetrius Troy shot 4-for-4 from the 3-point line and scored a season-high 17 points for UNCG (20-6, 11-2 SoCon), which pulled within a game of first-place ETSU (22-5, 13-1).
The two front-runners split a pair of games this season, each winning by double-figures at home. This one snapped ETSU’s 16-game winning streak.
The Spartans snapped it by defending the rim.
Dickey had eight points and seven rebounds to go with the eight blocks. His backup, sophomore Kyrin Galloway, blocked three shots and senior Jordy Kuiper blocked two.
Kylia Sykes’ block gave UNCG a team-record 14.
“A big part of their game plan is to get to the rim,” said Dickey, the SoCon leader in blocks. “For us to put a stop to that, it took away half of their offense. They were a little discombobulated from that. It was a tremendous game plan by our coaches.”
It was a plan built on defense.
“They spread you out,” Dickey said. “Work off ball-screens and play one-on-one basketball. They spread you and drive. So one-on-one defense and ball-screen defense are the big keys.
“And our (1-2-2 zone) press was so good, too. Even when they beat it, they only had 12 or 15 seconds (on the shot clock) to execute their offense. That means rushed shots.”
And that led to poor shooting.
ETSU never led. The Buccaneers cut the halftime lead to two points, but then shot just 8-for-29 (27.6 percent) from the field in the second half. Even with a remarkable 19 offensive rebounds, the Bucs scored just 20 second-chance points.
“They’re elite off the bounce,” UNCG coach Wes Miller said. “We knew they were going to get down there inside. So we thought our only chance was to try to make plays off the ball. Our guys gave a great effort to make plays on the ball at the rim, whether it was to make them miss or block a shot.”
UNCG pulled away with an 18-6 scoring run midway through the second half capped by Kuiper’s open 3-pointer. It pushed the lead to 14 points, and the Spartans led by at least 11 the rest of the way.
“They had the longest win streak in the U.S., and what they did was unbelievable,” Alonso said. “You’ve got to be really strong and focused to win 16 in a row. They execute, every night. So this is such a big win for us. … We took care of details. We knew there would be a lot of contact, a lot of battling. When we’re locked in like this, we can win any game.”
NOTES: UNCG senior Marvin Smith played just 17 minutes because of early foul trouble, but he shot 3-of-4 from the 3-point line and scored 13 points. … This is just the sixth 20-win season in UNCG’s history. … ETSU senior guard Desonta Bradford scored a game-high 21 points on 8-of-22 shooting. … Both UNCG and ETSU have SoCon games remaining against third-place Wofford. … UNCG came into the game No. 8 in the nation in scoring defense, allowing an average of 62.8 points.