Men's Basketball Blows Out Berea, Into Monday's Semis
Box Score | Season Stats | Tournament Bracket
WILMORE, Ky. – Asbury men’s basketball recorded the largest margin of victory ever against Berea and largest margin of victory in a Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament game on Saturday, defeating the Mountaineers 102-73. The Eagles advance to the semifinals against Indiana East on Monday at 2 pm. The semis and finals will be hosted by Indiana Southeast.
Dakotah Euton didn’t miss, making all 10 shots from the floor and all six three-point attempts en route to tying his career-high with 26 points. His previous season-high was 21 points against Spalding back in November. The junior forward also grabbed 10 rebounds, his fourth double-double of the season.
Asbury (19-12) never trailed, starting the game on a 13-2 run and scored on their first six possessions. Four different players scored on the first four offensive trips as the Eagles made their first four three-point attempts. They finished 12-of-23 from beyond the arc. Asbury shot 55-percent for the game while Berea (15-16) shot just 42-percent.
Adam Delph recorded his team-high fifth double-double of the season with 11 points and 11 assists. CJ Penny nearly had a triple-double with 23 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. The Eagles handed out 28 assists on 39 made field goals. They only turned it over six times.
Asbury took a relatively close game at the end of the first half, Berea cut the lead to five before Penny scored before the half to give the Eagles a 44-37 lead at the break, and blew out the Mountaineers in the second half. Asbury shot 69-percent in the second half while Berea shot just 39-percent. Mitch McLeish added 17 points off the bench and Justin Jones scored 10 points for the Eagles.
After struggling on the boards in the first two meetings against Berea this year, both losses for Asbury, the Eagles dominated the glass on Saturday. Asbury pulled in 46 rebounds to just 31 for Berea. The Eagles scored 44 points in the paint including 30 in the second half.
Asbury will meet Indiana East on Monday in the first semifinal at 2 pm. The Eagles and Red Wolves split their two meetings this year with each winning on the road. Asbury won 76-60 in Richmond on Jan. 9 and lost at home to the Red Wolves just a week ago on Feb. 19, 82-86. IU East just narrowly escaped the quarters, defeating Brescia 69-68 after making a basket with just seconds left to take the lead.
The other semifinal will be top-ranked Indiana Southeast playing Cincinnati Christian. Those teams split during the season with each team winning at home. That game will be at 6 pm on Monday. The championship game will be at IUS on Tuesday at 6 pm.
Monday’s game will have live stats which can be found here as well as live video here. Live tweets will also be available through the athletics department official twitter account, @Asbury_Eagles.
