Ryan House
The Alice Lloyd Eagles, under the direction of Coach JR Hammond, placed four players in double figures in route to a big 81-77 victory over KIAC conference foe Indiana University Southeast Tuesday night. The match-up took place at the Grady Nutt Athletic Center.
In the first half, the visiting Grenadiers opened on fire, scoring 10 consecutive points in the first 3:14.
The hosts finally scored their first bucket on a Tyler Rogers trifecta with 16:24 showing, and they reduced the deficit to 3 (12-9). Unfortunately, this was only a glitch as the visitors continued their steady play.
Sparked by guard Kerry Smith’s 9 early points, Southeast led 23-13 at the 10:14 mark and were in complete command of the contest.
Fortunately, to the delight of the home crowd, Rogers fueled a 15-4 run with 8 points over the next 5 minutes to give ALC their first lead of the night (28-27) with 5:38 remaining.
After IUS composed themselves once more, they went in front with an 8-3 spurt and led 35-31 with 4:11 showing on the clock. At this juncture, the game became the Ryan House show.
First, the Eagle reserve hit 2 foul shots. He followed that with a 22 foot bomb to put the Eagles ahead by 1. He then proceeded to score on an offensive tip-in, hit 1 free throw, connect on a 15 foot jumper, and then brought the frenzied crowd to its feet with another long range three. When the smoke cleared, House had scored 11 points over a three minute span, which permitted the Eagles to take a 45-41 lead at intermission.
In the second half, Alice Lloyd took up where they left off as they went on a 23-14 run to lead 68-55 with 10:38 remaining.
The Eagles were in command 77-65 with 5:11 showing, but the visitors made one last push by outscoring the hosts 10-2 over the next five minutes. When Southeast guard Demetrious Stanton sank two free throws with 11 seconds remaining, the score stood 79-77.
After Alice Lloyd forward Deondre Warren was fouled and missed the front end of the bonus, the Grenadiers big man Joe Jackson snared the rebound and looked to outlet to their leading scorer Smith for a chance to tie or take the lead. Much to the relief of the crowd in attendance, Eagle guard Austin Crisp shot the gap and stole the pass which forced Jackson to foul once more. The cool point guard then drained both tosses to notch a win on the hosts’ belts.
For the victors (9-8; 5-2 KIAC), four players reached double figures. Rogers led the way with 19 points and 7 rebounds. He was followed by House who had a huge game with 16 points and 3 steals. Crisp added 14 points and 8 assists while Warren contributed 14 points and 5 rebounds.
IUS (5-12; 1-3 KIAC) was led by Smith’s game high 22 points.