Box Score
The Bruins prepared for a tough region battle as they welcomed in the Emmanuel College Lions to Greenville. The Bruins were coming off a tough loss to Newberry College on Tuesday night and were looking to get back on track in front of the Bruin faithful. The Lions have played so far this season as the team has s 9-2 record and is ranked #6 in the nation in the NCCAA. Despite their record, the Lions came into the game on Friday night having lost two of their last three. The two teams met earlier in the season with the Lions winning 62-43. The Bruins were looking to keep their unbeaten record at home as the Lions and Bruins took the court.
From the opening tip, the Bruins came out strong behind back to back three's from Kyle Turner to open the scoring column for BJU. The Lions clawed their way for points behind good shooting from the wings as the two teams kept the score close in the opening minutes. Despite their smaller size, the Bruins battled for possession and scrapped for rebounds on both sides of the floor. The Lions shot 42% in the first half and began to increase their lead behind the scoring of Michael Stanley, who controlled the post with 8 points and 7 rebounds. As the buzzer sounded, the Bruins trailed 30-21 at the break.
"We knew we needed to speed the game up," Coach Ring said. "In the first half we moved the ball too slow in passing around and then we were taking contested shots. We also were getting beat on the rebounds pretty bad in the first half and we needed to fix that."
In the second half, the Bruins came out on fire and pushed the tempo in the opening minutes as the team was determined to get back into the game. The Bruins rallied behind Larry Taylor's 16 second half points to cut back into the lead. Zach Mercado hit a jumper with 8 minutes to go to cut the 45-40. From there, the Lions bumped their lead back up to double digits behind second chance opportunities. The Bruins eventually fought back and narrowed the gap to 6 points with less than a minute to play. The Lions Steven Guinchard then buried a three with 46 seconds left to put the Lions up by 9 and put the nail in the coffin for the Bruins. The Lions sunk their free throws down the stretch as the final buzzer handed the Bruins their first home loss of the season 74-65.
"What we take away from this is that we are not that far away from competing at this level," Coach Ring said. "We just competed against the #6 team in the nation and we were one or two mistakes away from possibly coming away with the win. We need to learn from this going into the break but we really like the way the team is working going into the break."
Larry Taylor led the way for the Bruins with 19 points and 5 assists. Kyle Turner chipped in 15 points and added 6 rebounds. The Bruins battled back in the second half and won the rebounding battle 24-23. With the loss, the Bruins fall to 6-8 on the season. The team will finish up their final exams this next week before heading home for Christmas break. The Bruins will look to make a run in the second half of the season as their first opponent of 2014 will be to welcome in the Tennessee Temple Crusaders to Greenville on January 3rd.
