GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – In their third Top-5 game of the season, the No. 2 ranked Men's Basketball team improved to 3-0 in such contests as they defeated No. 5 Indiana Tech 83-65. The victory is the tenth in a row for Cornerstone as they improve to 10-2 overall and 4-0 in the WHAC. CU will head on the road for the remainder of the calendar year starting Wednesday at Lourdes.
Game Flow
In their third matchup against a fellow Top-5 ranked team this season, the Cornerstone Golden Eagles jumped out to a quick 9-2 lead on their former Assistant Coach Ted Albert and his Indiana Tech Warriors. The spurt was finished off by a
Kyle Steigenga layup on a sweet feed from
Christian Rodriguez forcing IT into an early timeout. The Warriors battled back however and actually took a 13-12 lead on a triple from Mitch Morken with 12:13 to play in the half. CU scored on a layup from
Lance Martin on their next possession and they would never trail again, leading 39-36 at the half.
The Golden Eagles scored the first four points of the second half to go up by seven (43-36) and the lead hovered between 6-10 for the next 10 minutes until the defense really buckled down and created some separation. Leading by eight (52-44), CU used a 13-4 run that covered almost six minutes to open a 17-point lead. The run was finished off by a triple from
Riley Costen from just in front of his bench and an offensive put-back by
Sam Vander Sluis. The lowest the lead got for the remainder of the night was 15.
Say What?
"We played really well defensively despite some lapses. When our guys buy in, we are hard to score against and that showed tonight against a really good team" – Head Coach
Kim Elders
By the Numbers
24/15 – Points and rebounds for
Sam Vander Sluis
17/10 – Points and rebounds for
Kyle Steigenga
12/11 – Points for
Riley Costen and
Tyler Baker
50.9 – Shooting % for the Golden Eagles (28/55)
19/21 and 4/8 – CU outscored the Warriors by 15 at the foul line
Up Next
Cornerstone will now head to the road for their next five games beginning Wednesday when they play Lourdes in Sylvania. CU will then head to Madonna (12/10), Lawrence Tech (12/17) and then play at Evangel (Mo.) in a post-Christmas Tourney.
Men's Basketball Contact:
Aaron Sagraves
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