WHAC Tourney opens with 61-49 win over UNOH

Box Score

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – No. 8 Cornerstone men's basketball opened the WHAC Tournament on Wednesday night with a 61-49 win over visiting Northwestern Ohio. The win, which lifts CU to 25-5 on the year, sends the Golden Eagles into Saturday's semifinals at 3pm where they will host No. 15 Indiana Tech inside Mol Arena.

Game Flow

In a low-scoring affair, it took the No. 8 ranked Golden Eagles a little time to get their shooting touch down but behind the play of Cory Cox (JR/Flushing, Mich.), CU was able to pull ahead by 13 at the break. Cox nailed four triples in the opening twenty minutes while Joey Blauwkamp (JR/Grandville, Mich.) and Ben Lanning (SR/Grandville, Mich.) each hit one as well as CU made more than half of their shots from behind the arc to lead 35-22 going into the locker room.

As much as it felt like Cornerstone would just put the Racers away, it was the play of junior forward Lawrence Jackson that kept UNOH within striking distance. Jackson ended up with a game-high 23 points but the defense from Cornerstone wore down the visiting team as they limited them to just .310 from the field and .286 from behind the arc eventually winning by 12.

Say What?

"I thought we executed and played a solid first half but we just could not hit the shots. Our defense played strong but one thing that we will focus on is the offensive rebounds for UNOH." Head coach Kim Elders

By the Numbers

4 – Double-figure scorers for Cornerstone led by 14 each from Cory Cox and Kyle Steigenga (SO/Holland, Mich.)

38-34 – CU out-rebounded the Racers but UNOH had 15 offensive boards

17 – Made field goals by CU which is a season low by 3 (UNOH held CU to 20 on 12/12)

13 – Assists for Cornerstone on 17 made shots

19 – Free-throws made – two more than field goals made

Up Next

Cornerstone will move on to the WHAC semifinals where they will face No. 15 Indiana Tech on Saturday at 3 p.m. inside Mol Arena.

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