Jones paces Golden Eagles to 97-44 win over Bryan Lions
Junior Alfred Jones had 17 points and nine rebounds to pace the Golden Eagles in a convincing 97-44 victory over the Bryan College Lions Saturday night in Eblen Center. Several Golden Eagles posted career-highs in the win, Tech's second straight.
Golden Eagles established several personal
career-highs
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – It was a night to sample lineups and work
on execution, and everything seemed to work fine for Tennessee Tech
which built an insurmountable 52-19 lead by halftime and coasted to
97-44 victory over NAIA foe Bryan College Saturday night in Eblen
Center.
All 11 players on the roster saw action for coach Mike
Sutton’s squad, and all 11 contributed to the scoring. Junior
Alfred Jones led the way with a career-high 17 points on 8-for-9
shooting and also tied his career-high with nine rebounds. Named
the Player of the Game, Jones also had three assists, two steals
and a blocked shot.
Senior Frank Davis added 15 points, four assists and three steals,
and Kevin Murphy contributed 13 points and five rebounds. Senior
Elijah Muhammad narrowly missed his first career double-double,
finishing with 12 points and nine rebounds, in addition to three
assists and two steals.
Charles Newton scored a career-high nine points while Terrell
Barnes had seven points and a career-high eight rebounds. Riley
Hunley and Byron Pickens (photo at left) also notched career-highs,
getting four assists apiece.
Bryan’s Astral Guerrier was 8-for-10 from the field and
finished with 17 points and eight rebounds. Keith Bauer added nine
points.
While the offense came up just short in a bid to reach 100 points
for the 12th time in eight seasons under Sutton, the defense was
something special, holding the Lions to 28.8 percent shooting and a
season-low 44 points. It was the fewest points allowed by the
Golden Eagles since holding Union College to 40 last season in an
87-40 Tech win.
Tech (5-6) blistered the nets for 61.1 percent shooting in the
first half, hitting 22-for-36 from the field. The Golden Eagles
used a 28-10 rebound margin and also used their size advantage to
outscore Bryan 28-6 in the paint in the first 20 minutes.
The Golden Eagles finished the game hitting 55.6 percent
(40-for-72), including 9-for-19 from long range for 61.5
percent.
Tech raced out to a 6-0 lead before Desmond Craig hit a 3-pointer
for the Lions to make it a 6-3 contest. From there, Tech went on a
21-4 stretch to open a 27-7 lead with 12:20 remaining in the half.
Senior Frank Davis started the run with a 3-pointer and capped it
with a lay up.
With Tech scoring 17 second-chance points in the opening period,
the lead grew to 33 by half-time as Bassey Inameti scored on a
putback with three seconds left.
Tech continued to do an outstanding job protecting the basketball,
being charged with only nine turnovers in the game.
The Golden Eagles take a brief holiday break from action for the
next 10 days. Tech will try to make it three wins in a row on
Wednesday, Dec. 30, when it hosts Union College at 7:30 p.m. in the
nightcap of a doubleheader in Eblen Center.
GOLDEN NUGGETS: Reserves Riley Hunley and Charles
Newton each logged career-highs for minutes played, with Newton
playing 16 minutes and Hunley 11…Tech is now 5-0 against
Bryan College…
