No. 14 Men’s Basketball escapes with 68-65 win

Box Score

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – After trailing by six at the break and by as many as eight in the second half, the No. 14 ranked men's basketball team pulled out a 68-65 win over visiting UM-Dearborn on Wednesday night at Mol Arena. The Golden Eagles struggled from the field, shooting only 39%, but rallied with a 43-point second half to improve to 8-3 on the year and 4-1 in WHAC play. Cornerstone will play host to No. 3 Davenport on Saturday at 3 p.m.

Game Flow
Cornerstone raced out to a quick 9-5 lead after a Justin Pepper (SR/Wayland, Mich.) layup just 4:31 into the game but the Wolverines came back strong and closed out the half up 31-25. The largest lead UMD held was an 8-point advantage but a late Ty Smith (SO/Zeeland, Mich.) layup brought the margin to just six at the break for the Golden Eagles.

After the Wolverines upped their lead to seven at 36-29, Cornerstone used an 8-1 run and took their first lead since 11-8 in the first half on a pair of free-throws from Kyle Steigenga (FR/Holland, Mich.). The lead grew to six for CU as Steigenga and Cory Cox (SO/Flushing, Mich.) scored all of CU's points during a 16-6 run to help the Golden Eagles lead 55-49.

Dearborn would not go away though and with just under three minutes to play, the Wolverines found themselves up 59-56 only to see Kyle Steigenga again convert a 3-point play to tie it up. After Dearborn re-took the lead 63-61, CU got five straight free-throws from Travis Wells (JR/Eaton Rapids, Mich.), Cory Cox and Kyle Steigenga to lead 66-63. A last second gasp from UMD made it a 1-point game but Kyle Steigenga put the finishing touches on the win with a thunderous dunk as time expired.

Say What?
"We were able to respond to adversity in the second half and we really came together as a group. We fought and battled to the end and we were able to seal another conference win." Freshman Kyle Steigenga

By the Numbers
12 – Free-throws by freshman Kyle Steigenga, part of his game high 24 points – it marks the second time Kyle has had at least 12 free-throws in the last three games

2-17 – Cornerstone was ice cold from behind the arc, finishing with an 11.8% (previous low was .250 vs. Hope)

11/12 – The 11 assists to 12 turnovers is the fourth time this season CU has had fewer assists than turnovers

37-2 – Kim Elders improves to 37-2 all-time against UM-Dearborn

Up Next
Cornerstone will stay at home and welcome in rival Davenport on Saturday at 3 p.m. The Panthers are the last undefeated team in the WHAC and are ranked No. 3 in the NAIA Top-25.

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