February 5, 2004

Mobile defeats Dillard with final shot

By TOMMY HICKS
Sports Reporter

To be honest, the first thing Seluynn Palmer thought about was making sure he caught the basketball. Once that had been accomplished, then he thought about the shot, the 3-pointer that gave the University of Mobile a 65-64 Gulf Coast Athletic Conference victory over Dillard on Thursday night at Pharr Gymnasium.

His basket from the left corner was the only 3-pointer in 10 attempts the Rams made.

"I knew we only had so many seconds to shoot the ball," said Palmer, who came up with the inbounds pass following a timeout and made the basket with just 10 seconds to play. "Once I got the ball, I made a shot-fake, then set my feet and let it go.

"I knew I was going to hit one sooner or later. I was coming off a bad shooting game. A shot like that, that's what you practice shooting every day for."

The Rams (18-7, 8-3) have won eight of their past nine games after starting conference play 0-2. Mobile is ranked No. 28 in the NAIA poll, with Dillard (17-7, 6-4) holding the No. 30 spot.

"That was a really big game and big win for us because (Dillard is) right there in the hunt," Mobile coach Joe Niland said. "We didn't quit. Our guys didn't quit. They battled the whole night and Seluynn stepped up and hit a big, big basket."

Mobile started slowly, falling behind 12-4 early but bounced back to tie the game at 19-all with 9:28 left in the first half. From that point on, neither team led by more than four points. The game was tied 32-32 at the half.

The lead went back and forth the entire second half. Dillard grabbed a 64-60 edge on an Eric Bell free throw with 2:29 to play. It would be the last point Dillard scored. Alfredo Ott missed a pair of free throws with 1:53 left that would have given Dillard a six-point edge.

Tramaine Perry scored on a tip-in at the 1:20 mark and it was 70 seconds before the next basket fell, that being Palmer's 3-pointer for the win. In between, Mobile made two big steals.

"That was our seventh game in 14 days, and the guys hung in there tonight," Niland said. "They kept their noses in there and made some tough plays."

Gimel Lewis scored 22 points to lead the Rams, hitting 9-of-14 shots. Palmer, Perry and Chris Bolden all scored nine points each.

Mobile held Dillard, which leads the NAIA in offensive rebounding, to one offensive rebound in the first half and five for the game.

Ott's 18 points were tops for Dillard, with Eric Mercier scoring 14 and Bell adding 13.