ASHEVILLE, N.C. — In a season with many high hopes, it was a sudden, disappointing end for the Elon University men’s basketball team.
Predicted as Southern Conference champions in the preseason, Elon’s season ended far short of that. With three straight losses, the final one being a 66-64 heartbreaker to Western Carolina University in the SoCon quarterfinals, the Phoenix finished the 2013-2014 campaign on a low note.
“It stinks to lose,” said senior guard Jack Isenbarger. “No one likes to lose, especially when you have an opportunity to play in the NCAA Tournament. That was the goal. To lose here, it hasn’t completely sunk in yet.”
Elon led by as many as 12 points in the second half, but Western Carolina reeled off a run of four 3-pointers within three minutes to claw back into the game and eventually pull ahead.
The Phoenix trailed by four with 12.9 seconds left but cut the lead in half after a Western Carolina travel and a bucket underneath by senior forward Ryley Beaumont. The Catamounts lost the ensuing possession out of bounds, giving the Phoenix a chance with 6.6 seconds on the clock.
Isenbarger took an inbounds pass at the top of the arc and came off a pick from senior forward Lucas Troutman but saw his 3-pointer clank off the right side of the rim in the waning moments of the game.
“We got the shot we wanted,” Isenbarger said. “It was relatively open. It felt good coming off. It just kind of sailed to the right a little bit.”
The loss ends an era of the proclaimed “Core Four” senior class of Isenbarger, Troutman, Beaumont and Sebastian Koch. The four helped produce 68 wins in their four years, the most for one class in Elon’s Division I history.
They led Elon to its first-ever postseason tournament, earning a bid to the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament in 2013. All four players scored more than 1,000 points during their careers.
“This is a special class, one of the best classes in the history of Elon basketball,” said Elon head coach Matt Matheny. “I’ve said this before, their legacy’s already cemented as one of the best of all time.”
Not only was it his last of 22 consecutive Southern Conference tournaments — he was an assistant at Davidson for 16 years prior to coming to Elon — it was the first time in Matheny’s five-year tenure at Elon that the team did not advance to the SoCon semifinals.
“The finality of conference tournament play, it’s like a dagger in the heart,” Matheny said.
After beating Furman University by 31 points Feb. 24, Elon lost its final three games. The Phoenix lost by four to Wofford College at home Feb. 27 before getting blown out by Davidson College on senior night and finally losing to Western Carolina.
The season saw its highs and lows, with the peak being an 87-85 overtime win at Davidson Jan. 16. The Phoenix had big crowds in Alumni Gym when the University of Massachusetts and Davidson came to town but failed to win either contest.
Early on, excitement was flowing at “Late Night with the Phoenix” and a season-opening blowout of Washington and Lee University. But that was kept at a brim with one-point losses to Canisius College and Division II Metropolitan State University.
Elon now sets its sights on the Colonial Athletic Association, which it will be joining officially July 2014. Teams that the Phoenix will be facing include the University of Delaware, Towson University and College of Charleston.
With the heightened competition in the CAA, next year could bring bumps and bruises for Elon. Only one starter returns, and more than 60 percent of the team’s scoring production graduates.
Leading the charge will be junior guards Kevin Blake and Austin Hamilton along with sophomore sharp shooter Tanner Samson. In the post, junior forward Ryan Winters and freshman forward Brian Dawkins will be looked toward to fill the void of Troutman and Beaumont.
Blake averaged just 4.7 points for the year but showed a knack for aggression in his 10 starts this year. Hamilton started early on and will likely play the point guard position, while Samson will continue to be a lethal 3-point shooting threat.
Winters and Dawkins each saw increased playing time late in this season, with Matheny saying after a number of games how impressed he was with their play. Freshman guard Luke Eddy and freshman forward Christian Hairston will also take on bigger roles next season.
The problem facing Matheny will be how quickly it takes these players, who accounted for less than half of Elon’s total minutes this year, to adjust to their new roles and more playing time.
With new opponents and new faces awaiting, it will be a year of change in 2014-2015 for the Elon men’s basketball team.