Box Score WINFIELD, Kan. – The No. 6-ranked Southwestern College men's basketball team played host to the Friends University Falcons on Saturday evening inside Stewart Field House. The bout pitted two teams on opposite ends of the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC) standings against each other, and the end result came out as you might have expected, with SC authoring a double-digit victory over their longstanding rivals. After a tight-fought first half, the Builders vaulted themselves to an 85-71 win with a stellar second half.
In the opening half of play, the Builders began a bit slowly, as the Falcons came out with a 5-1 stretch to start the tilt. Luckily, SC would turn things on quickly on the offensive end, as they scored 10 of the next 14 points to go up 11-9 with 15:30 left in the half. From that point, the Moundbuilders held and slowly grew their lead to nine points at 36-27 with 4:19 left to go. They then allowed a subsequent 9-2 run to the visitors over the remainder of the stanza, before Cevin Clark unfurled a three-point jumper with just over 20 seconds left in the first frame. That three-pointer would put Cevin Clark among the list of 1,000-point scorers in Southwestern College history, as he achieved the feat in just 49 games in the purple and black. Both squads shot well, with Friends having nailed 14-of-29 from the field and the Moundbuilders countering with a 17-of-33 showing. The 41-36 Builder lead would be taken into the locker room.
The second-half offense was not much different for either side. In fact, Southwestern 51.4% clip in the second half was just 0.1% less than their 51.5% showing in the first. Conversely, for the Falcons, they took the exact number of shots in each half and made just one fewer in the second half. After Southwestern was able to stretch their advantage to as many as 17 points at 62-45 with 12:47 to play, Friends rattled off a 12-0 run over the following 3:28, which made it just a five-point game again. The Builders would knock down a three and a two-pointer on their next two possessions to extend that lead to 10 at 67-57, and the lead stayed similar for the rest of the matchup. In the end, SC pulled off an 85-71 win to win their 10th game in a row.
Deng Bol was ridiculously good as a scorer in this battle, having led the team in scoring with 24 points. He shot at an unreal 10-of-12 clip, including a 2-of-2 showing from deep. Additionally, Cooper Pierce broke out with an 8-of-12 shooting night for Southwestern, and made four of his seven tries from long range. Beyond reaching the career 1,000-point mark, Clark scored 15 points in the battle and was 6-of-13 from the floor.
"Deng Bol was fantastic on both ends of the floor," said head coach Matt O'Brien. "He continues to guard at an elite level while making plays on the offensive end."
Andrew O'Brien was sharing the sugar beautifully in this game, as the Falcons could not diagnose the SC offense quickly enough. He dished out 12 assists, and was followed by Clark with three. Two dimes were tallied by Bol, and a single assist was picked up by Jarvis Jennings, Trey White, Phillip Smith and Zach Hidalgo.
Pierce led the team in boards, having gobbled up 10 rebounds in the game. He was closely followed by O'Brien, with nine, and a trio of Builders with four rebounds. The three players were Bol, Jennings and White.
Pierce was also important as a shot blocker for the Moundbuilders in this game, as he sent back three Falcon shots. O'Brien and Hidalgo were also credited with a blocked shot in the tilt. The squad had just four steals, as O'Brien claimed three of them and Jennings was responsible for the other.
"It was good to have Cooper Pierce have a breakout game for us," continued O'Brien. "His effort on the boards and three-point shooting were big factors in the win tonight."
After sewing up their 10th straight triumph, the Builders (15-1, 9-1 KCAC) are looking to keep the train rolling with another victory on the road in Salina, Kan. against a highly talented foe in No. 21-ranked Kansas Wesleyan University on Wednesday, Jan. 11 at 8 p.m.
--buildersports.com--
