Dalton State College had Southern States Athletic Conference opponent Point frustrated from the start on Saturday.
The Roadrunners went up by 10 just seven minutes into Saturday’s game and opposing coach Jake Deer furiously called a timeout for the second time in less than a minute.
Dalton State jumped on Point early, built a 20-point first-half lead and never really let the game be in much doubt on the way to a 92-81 win over the Skyhawks Saturday afternoon.
“I thought we had a sense of urgency from the start,” Dalton State head coach Alex Ireland said. “We talked to them about not getting comfortable when you have a lead and pushing all the way through, and the guys came off the bench and increased the lead and didn’t lose the lead.”
The Roadrunners (4-2, 2-0 SSAC) roared out to a 15-5 lead over Point (5-3, 0-2 SSAC) with suffocating defense combined with an offense that shared the ball and found easy looks.
Dalton State led 26-15, forcing another angry timeout from Deer, went up 34-20 after back-to-back triples by Ellis Lee and Franklin Almonte and got the lead above 20 for the first time with a Donavan Miller no-look dish to Carterius Evans that made it 44-23 late in the first half.
Dalton State led 47-31 at halftime and never let the advantage dip lower than 10 again. The lead resided in the high teens and low 20s — capping out at 25 — for most of the second half until a late Point push with Dalton State reserves on the floor got the final margin to just 11.
The 47 points scored in the first half were a season-high for a half for Dalton State, and 21 assists — eight of them by Miller — tied a school record for assists in a game for the Roadrunners.
“I was just really proud of the way we shared the ball tonight,” Ireland said.
The Roadrunners kept the ball moving with hit-ahead passes in the open court and smart passes off of drives when forced to set up the offense.
Those assists led to a lot of easy buckets and 46 paint points for the Roadrunners, outpacing Point’s 28. Dalton State shot 48.6% overall and 40.7% from 3, nailing 11 shots from behind the arc.
Miller, Dalton State’s leading scorer by average at 12.4 points per game, was the only Roadrunner that didn’t shoot well. He went 1-for-12 from the floor and had just two points, but matched his season high with eight assists and found Carterius Evans for several open looks while not turning the ball over.”
“He’s becoming a total point guard, and that’s such a credit to him and the growth he’s made,” Ireland said. “It’s so easy for him to beat his man that it can be easy to take the shot, but sometimes others have better shots.”
Evans finished with 17 points and seven rebounds, while Matt Compas led the Roadrunners with 18 points. Lee hit four 3-pointers and had 14, while Dalton High School graduate Franklin Almonte hit two and had 12.
Almonte and Evans made it hard on Point inside, each tallying three blocks. Kawasiki Ricks contributed five assists and seven points, Qualen Pettus had nine points and three steals and Harrison Eghan had seven points and six boards.
Robert Kendrick and Theron Montgomery both had 13 points to share the scoring lead for Point.
Dalton State, after getting to 2-0 in SSAC play, will step back out of conference action Tuesday. The Roadrunners hit the road for Williamsburg, Kentucky, to play Cumberlands at 7 p.m. Tuesday.