Down by 23 in the fourth quarter, Live Oak made a run against Saratoga and threatened to pull out a shocker in the Acorns’ home debut.
But despite going on an 13-0 scoring run, Live Oak couldn’t overcome the Falcons’ 12 3-pointers in a 68-56 loss.
“One of the big things at halftime that we talked about was coming out in the third quarter and competing. We’re notorious for our third quarter meltdowns.” said coach Brett Paolucci. “We competed, but so did they and they were able to get that (23) point lead.”
Although Live Oak put up 15 points in the quarter, it couldn’t contain Michael Cole, who went off for 12 points to lead Saratoga in a 23-point period.
Cole had seven of Saratoga’s 3s putting up a game-leading 33 points. He didn’t have his first field goal from inside the arc until his first basket of the second half.
“We’re going to face guys like that (all year): Guys who can shoot the three. Guys like that are hard to guard because you get a body on him and what’s he going to do? He’s going to drive. He can finish at the basket and find other guys,” Paolucci said. “That was a tough match up.”
Live Oak battled in the first quarter, where the difference in the period was the perimeter shot. The Acorns put up a respectable 15 points, but five 3s led to 22 Saratoga points.
“They are a really good 3-point shooting team. You live and die by the 3 and they lived by the 3. Say they missed three more of those 3s and we have a ball game,” Paolucci said. “But you got to hand it to them, Saratoga is a phenomenal basketball team.”
Live Oak wasn’t able to keep up the pace in the second quarter, being held to nine points and falling behind 36-24 at the half.
Tanner Howard had 15 points in the effort, 12 of which came in the first three quarters.
In the fourth, point guard Ryan Rupp put up five points, including going three for four from the line to boost the Acorns in the final frame.
“I was happy with the effort — more than happy with the effort. It was awesome,” Paolucci said.
Live Oak’s run ended with 3:29 to play in the game, when Saratoga put up five points to put the game out of reach.
Paolucci said he was happy with the way the boys responded, but recognized that there were a few things that the team could have done to make the game closer.
Live Oak missed 11 free throws out of 28 attempts.
“Empty points left out there on the floor,” Paolucci said. “They miss a couple of 3s and we make a few free throws and we’re talking about a ball game.”
Live Oak will hit the road Friday to play Gonzalez at 7 p.m. and then will return home to play Andrew Hill Monday.
“I hope we can take that effort into tomorrow night, that kind of game, how we played, that never give up effort. That’s something that is going to have to be around all season long. All season long,” Paolucci said.
