Team Stackhouse 70 Team Jamison 69

By Mark Carroll - Blog Coordinator

After suffering their first loss of the season earlier this week, Team Stackhouse bounced back to defeat Team Jamison in a contest that kept fans on the edge of their seats.

Duke senior Nolan Smith suited up for Team Jamison, but struggled from long range in the opening half. While Smith had trouble finding his touch from deep, his teammates got involved, and Lance Randall's lay-in at the end of the first quarter put Team Jamison ahead, 18-13.

Team Stackhouse's E.J. Williams was a key contributor on the other end, but his team trailed by nine at halftime after his teammates Charles Ward and Chris Hill were unable to hit their shots from the charity stripe in the second quarter. Williams was huge in the second half, scoring 17 of his 26 points in the final two quarters. He also dished out plenty of assists to get other members of Team Stackhouse involved, and Jolly Manning's three point play in the final minute of the third quarter cut the margin to two. Smith finally found his stroke just in time to kill the run, hitting a three at the buzzer to stretch his team's lead to 54-49.

Smith and Williams played tremendously in the final period, going back and forth, hitting several impressive buckets. At the nine minute mark, Smith brought the crowd to its feet after converting a four point play, but Williams silenced the fans in dark blue with a long range three in response.

With four minutes to go in the game, Ward missed the second of two free throws, but Manning skied for the rebound and passed the ball to Ward who dropped in a lay-up despite getting fouled. After hitting the bonus, Ward gave Team Stackhouse a 60-58 lead.

The game remained close to the end, and Team Jamison, trailing by one, in-bounded the ball with 26.2 seconds on the clock. Smith dribbled some time off the clock so his team could get the last shot. As the seconds wound down, Smith found Omar Khannai open in the corner for three, but Khannai was unable to hit the shot. Team Stackhouse escaped with close victory of 70-69.