Off to a glittery 3-0 start to the 2023-24 season, the Golden Eagles schedule ramped up sharply as they traveled to play against two bigger programs in the two-day Connor Classic at Thomas More University in Northern Kentucky.
On Friday evening, the navy and gold faced NAIA Lindsey Wilson (2-4)---members of the Mid South Conference---and the Blue Raiders handed KSU Tusc their first setback of the season and 85-69 loss as they played without the services of senior leading scorer Kameron Shockley. Both losses kept the Eagles from taking another big step forward.
Two big three balls put the Eagles in a 6-2 hole to start the game. However, they rose up on a Vinny Roper runner and old fashioned three-point play combined with a great wrap around feed down low from Roper to Darion Lee for another basket and two sniper treys from Ethan Bower to take a 13-8 lead.
But the Eagles went scoreless for three minutes as LWC outscored them 8-1 to take back an 18-14 advantage. An Ed Daniels triple rallied KSU Tusc back to 18-17 before a pair of long range bombs jumped the Raiders back to the front 24-19.
Lindsey Wilson built their biggest lead of the opening half 28-21, but a one-handed banker from Mekhi Johnson along with an offensive carom by Bower and a trey from the right wing by Braden Rostad gave the Eagles a 29-28 lead at the 6:12 mark.
The Blue Raiders stormed back to take a 37-32 lead, but an up and under move by Javier Ward trimmed the deficit to three at 37-34. LWC then limited the Golden Eagles to one point and closed the half with a 4-1 run to lead 41-35 at the intermission.
At the outset of the second stanza, the Golden Eagles went comatose for nearly five minutes as the Blue Raiders were off and running outscoring them 13-2 to open up a 53-37 advantage. They played rim-to-rim basketball as the wobbly Eagles lost their competitive edge as LWC took care of business with high percentage shots as they shot 55% from the floor over the final 20 minutes.
Trailing by 18 points---66-48---KSU Tusc warmed up a bit on the strength of a 15-foot jumper by Lee, a spinning and one in the lane by Juwan Coates and a three-ball from Rostad to get to within 68-56. They would get no closer as the Raiders continued to attack the basket and outrace the Eagles on several runouts off defensive rebounds.
Leading the way for the second straight game was Kyle Shockley who scored 17 points and dished out seven assists. Ethan Bower was right behind with 15 points as he sank 4/8 shots from behind the arc while Braden Rostad contributed 10.
Saturday, the Golden Eagles will play in their final game of the classic against the host Saints in a 3 p.m. tipoff. They will follow that game up with a game at NCAA DII Ashland on Wednesday, November 22 at 1 p.m.
Javier Ward scores his first two points as a Golden Eagle and Kyle Shockley is stopped at the rim but led KSU Tusc with 17 points, 7 boards & four steals.
Ethan Bower rained home 4/8 three-point shots and scored 15 poiints.
Vinny Roper on the defense for KSU Tusc and had three steals.
(Photos Courtesy of Thomas More Saints Athletics)