Blake Smith
Pippa Passes, KY: The Alice Lloyd College Eagles hosted the Brescia Bearcats on Saturday, December 1st in a River States Conference showdown. In a game that went down to the wire, the Bearcats squeaked out an 89-86 win.
In the opening three minutes, the Bearcats spurted out to a quick 7-2 lead before the hosts settled down and answered with an 11-2 run to pull ahead 13-9.
Holding a 23-17 advantage at the 7:57 mark, the Eagles rolled off an 8-1 spurt over the next 1:46. The flurry was capped off by an old-fashioned three-point play from sophomore guard Ian Lee. Suddenly, Alice Lloyd held a 31-18 cushion and looked on the verge of putting the game away early.
However, BU is a solid club and they began to chip away at the deficit. Led by guard Dillon Geralds, his squad would proceed to roll off a 20-7 run of their own to tie the game at 38. When Eagle sophomore guard Noah Young bagged a bomb just before the buzzer sounded, ALC would enter intermission clinging to a 41-38 lead.
In the second half, ALC came out of the locker room with a spurt to inch ahead by eight (49-41), but the Bearcats caught fire and refused to roll over. Sparked by 67.9% second-half shooting, BU fought back to regain the lead.
Over the final 13:27 the two adversaries would trade hoops in a highly entertaining fashion. Finally, in the closing minutes, the Brescia duo of Geralds and guard Tristen Murray would connect on several huge buckets to give their team an advantage they would not relinquish.
Alice Lloyd would get one final chance to send the game into overtime as senior guard Ryan House would get off a contested three-pointer just before the buzzer, but his attempt came up just short.
For BU (5-6; 2-0 RSC), Geralds and Murray would lead the way with 20 points apiece.
For ALC (3-6; 0-2 RSC), junior guard Blake Smith would pump in 20 points and grab 5 rebounds to lead the way. He was followed by Young with 14 points and 7 rebounds. Senior forward Simon Christon added 12 points and led the club with 8 rebounds and 5 assists. Junior forward Chance Cornett and freshman center Colyn Sturgill chipped in with 11 points apiece. Sophomore guard Austin Combs drained three bombs for 9 points and added 2 steals.
The victors finished the night shooting 49.2% (32-65) from the field including 50% (11-22) from behind the arc. They sank 82.4% (14-17) from the charity stripe and added 29 rebounds, 18 assists, and 6 steals.
The Eagles finished a solid 55.6% (35-63) from the field, 70% (7-10) from the charity stripe and 45% (9-20) from long range. They added 30 rebounds, 18 assists, and 4 steals.
ALC returns to the hardwood this week for two big conference matches. They play at Cincinnati Christian on Tuesday at 7:30 pm before returning home on Saturday to face Indiana University Kokomo at 3:00 pm.