IU East News
CRESTVIEW HILLS, Ky. - A late scoring drought, a flurry of fouls and a rough rebounding night proved too much for the Indiana University East men's basketball team to overcome.
The Red Wolves fell 96-87 in overtime against Baldwin-Wallace College on Dec. 27.
It was the opening game of the Thomas More College Coach Connor Classic.
"This game was typical of our season," said IU East coach Mark Hester. "We are consistently inconsistent. We think we can go on runs of two minutes or four minutes instead of playing 40 minutes of quality basketball.
"When you play with fire like that you are going to get burned, and that's what we did."
IU East (7-5) finished the game with five available players. Four Red Wolves fouled out. Another player missed the final minutes after leaving the game with an injury.
IU East never led in the overtime. The last tie was at 82. Baldwin-Wallace (5-5) scored its last nine points on free throws.
The Red Wolves forced overtime on Brent Burris' layup with 0.06 seconds that tied the score at 80. Burris' score was set up by a full-court dash and dish by David Sanders.
IU East was forced to rally because it went scoreless for almost four minutes after taking a 74-67 lead with 4:31 remaining.
A five-point possession for Baldwin-Wallace reduced the Red Wolves' lead to two in one fell swoop. The Yellow Jackets got five points in one trip on a conventional three-point play plus two free throws after an IU East technical foul.
"That five point swing was a big part of the game," said senior forward Justin Hawkins (Evansville, Ind./Kentucky Wesleyan College).
The contest turned into a free throw shooting contest in the second half and the overtime.
Baldwin-Wallace made 33 of 49 from the free throw line. IU East made 19 of 31 free throws.
The teams were whistled for 59 total fouls.
"I've never been in a game where I had 35 team fouls," Hester said.
Junior guard Tyler Rigby (Bryant, Ind./Jay County High School) led IU East with 22 points. Hawkins added 19 and was named IU East's Player of the Game by tournament officials.
Chris Ameen led Baldwin-Wallace with 25 points and 12 rebounds. Ameen helped the Yellow Jackets to 51-33 rebounding advantage.
"We talked about being aggressive and going to the ball, and we didn't," Hester said.
The Red Wolves erased a 10-point deficit in the first half and led 50-48 at the break.
"It was a rough start," Hawkins said. "We found ourselves down big early and we were in our usual position of trying to fight our way back."
The roles reversed in the second half. IU East's lead reached eight points before the Yellow Jackets stung the Red Wolves down the stretch.
IU East saw its three game winning streak snapped.
IU East concludes the Coach Connor Classic with a game against Mount Union College on Dec. 28. Tipoff is at 5 p.m.
Access live stats for the IU East-Mount Union game at www.iueredwolves.com.
