No. 4 MBB wins at No. 16 UNOH; Heads into WHAC Final

Box Score

LIMA, Ohio – For the second straight year and 17th time in the 23 year history of the conference, the Cornerstone men's basketball team will play for a WHAC Tournament championship. The No. 4 ranked Golden Eagles posted a 95-85 victory over No. 16 Northwestern Ohio on Saturday and they advance to play at No. 7 Davenport on Tuesday, March 3 at 7:30 p.m. Cornerstone and Davenport have identical 27-5 records and split the season series.

Game Flow
The last time the two teams met back on January 31 in Grand Rapids, Cornerstone raced out to a big lead and never let up winning 94-67. Saturday night saw a similar start to the game as CU jumped out front 18-10 on a pair of Ty Mason (SR/Comstock Park, Mich.) free-throws. The lead would grow to as many as 11 in the opening half but UNOH closed strong, trailing by only five (49-44).

The Racers, who captured a share of their first ever league title this season, continued their strong run into the second and tied the game at 54-54 but then Cornerstone came back with a 15-5 run to take a 10-point lead with 14:31 to play. The run was finished by a Kyle Steigenga (FR/Holland, Mich.) jumper from an Eric Readman (SO/Fenton, Mich.) feed and forced UNOH into a timeout. The lead would grow even more out of the timeout as Michael McLaughlin (SO/Grand Rapids, Mich.) hit a triple to put CU up by 13 and they would not let the lead get below six for the remainder of the game.

Say What?
"Every time we come down here, we are prepared for a different atmosphere. This was a traditional WHAC Tournament battle and we are thankful we had enough guys step up. It was a great win." – Assistant coach Ted Albert

By the Numbers
21 and 11 – A double-double in points and rebounds for Ben Lanning (JR/Grandville, Mich.)

24 – Kyle Steigenga led the Golden Eagles in scoring, which is his 31st double-figure game in 32 appearances

10/21 – CU finished a scorching .476 from behind the arc – Cory Cox (SO/Flushing, Mich.) had four, Lanning and McLaughlin two each

33-27 – The Golden Eagles controlled the glass and had nine offensive rebound, converting to 15 second chance points

0 – Cornerstone found themselves trailing for 0 minutes

Up Next
Cornerstone will stay on the road as they head to tri-champion Davenport, who is ranked No. 7 in the NAIA, on Tuesday, March 3 for the 2015 WHAC Tournament championship game.

Print Friendly Version