Owensboro, KY: The Alice Lloyd College Eagles placed six players in double figures to defeat the home-standing Brescia University Bearcats in a big conference matchup, 98-93. The contest took place on Saturday, December 7th.
In the opening half, the visitors jumped out to a great start. Crisp ball movement and torrid shooting helped the Eagles to build a quick lead. When senior guard Blake Smith swished a jumper at the 11:20 mark, the score stood 24-8. However, the Bearcats would claw their way back in front of the home fans and slowly reduce the deficit to just three (36-33). Still, Alice Lloyd would hang on to lead 46-41 at intermission.
In the second half, ALC would battle to maintain their advantage while BU would ride the 1-2 scoring punch of big Kayode Daboiku and guard Jalen Rose to keep the game tight. The Eagles would counter with solid play from senior guard Ian Lee, sophomore guard Bryce Slone, and sophomore center Colin Sturgill to fight off the home club. They would keep a cushion between 9-3 points the bulk of the way.
At last, Brescia would get as close as 92-90 with just 1:15 remaining. Fortunately, even though they would bend, the Caney Creek club would not break.
First, Smith would swish two clutch charity tosses to give his squad a little breathing room (94-90). Finally, Slone would follow with daggers as he drained 4-4 to end the threat and earn the men from Pippa Passes their first River States Conference win of the season.
For ALC (7-5; 1-1 RSC), they were led by Smith and Slone, both with 19 points (Smith: 8-12 FG; Slone: 5-11 3PFG, 4-4 FT). Lee and Young were right behind with 17 and 14 points respectively. Lee bagged four bombs of his own while Young impressed by going 7-8 from the floor and dishing out a game-high 9 assists.
Sturgill came up huge as the big man recorded a double-double with 10 points and 10 powerful rebounds. In addition, freshman guard Tanner Perdue added 10 important points off the bench while sophomore forward Will Philpot added 7 rebounds and led everyone with 2 steals.
The victorious club connected on a solid 56.1% (37-66) from the field, including 42.9% (12-28) from long range. They hit 63.2% (16-26) from the foul line and added 33 rebounds, 21 assists, and 5 steals. Most importantly, they had only 6 turnovers.
BU (4-8; 1-1 RSC) was led by Rose and Daboiku with 27 and 26 points respectively. Their club connected on 51.5% (34-66) from the field, including a blistering 50% (15-30) from long range. They hit 62.5% (10-16) from the foul line and added 34 rebounds, 19 assists, and 13 steals.
ALC returns to action on Saturday, December 14th when they travel to Indiana to face Indiana University-Kokomo (NAIA DII # 16) in an important conference match at 3:00. They then journey to Pikeville on Tuesday, December 17th to battle the Bears (NAIA DI #5) at 7:30 pm.
After Christmas, the club then travels to Morehead State University on December 28th to close out the 2019 portion of the season in an exhibition matchup with the NCAA DI Morehead State Eagles, coached by former Eagle alumnus Preston Spradlin. Tipoff is set for 12:00 noon.