B-CU Stumbles in Men’s Basketball
Season-Opener to Warner
Southern, 64-59
Outside shooting dooms Wildcats in loss
to Royals
Brian Harvey
11/10/07
(DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. –)
Bethune-Cookman University was picked to
finish sixth in the Mid-Eastern Athletic
Conference, but that didn’t help the
Wildcats in their season-opener Saturday
night at Moore Gymnasium.
NAIA Warner Southern College used
balanced scoring, a lethal outside touch
and a strong defensive effort to pull
off a 64-59 upset of the Wildcats on
their home floor.
“It’s a tough opener and it only gets
tougher from here; that’s a fact,’’ said
B-CU men’s basketball coach Clifford
Reed. “We just have a new influx of guys
and you have new guys who have never
been through (a Division I opener) and
they don’t understand.’’
John Holmes, a JC transfer to B-CU this
winter out of Des Moines (Iowa) Area
Community College, paced the Wildcats
with a game-high 23 points and eight
rebounds, while hitting all six of his
field goal attempts on the evening.
Holmes got some assistance out of senior
Jimmy Hudson, who tallied 10 points and
six rebounds before fouling out with
2:53 left to play, and freshman big man
Kyle Cook, who pulled down a game-high
10 rebounds (9 on the defensive glass).
Senior Jordan Carrier also tallied 12
points on the evening.
Warner Southern’s hounding defense
limited the Wildcats to just 18-of-48
shooting from the floor, but it still
took some clutch free throw shooting by
the Royals in the closing minutes to put
the game away.
“You have to give a hand to (Warner
coach) Sean Hanrahan and his staff. They
just came in and did a good job,’’ said
Reed. “We just got outplayed. They
wanted it a little more and just
outplayed us.’’
In the Wildcats’ defense, B-CU did go
into battle a little short-handed as
senior Dwayne Pettus was attending to a
death in the family, junior Josh
Cummings sat out for disciplinary
reasons and highly-touted freshman
Gerrell Knightshead is still awaiting
clearance from the NCAA Clearinghouse.
B-CU could’ve used some extra firepower
against the Royals, who had nine players
see at least 10 minutes or more, while
five B-CU players were forced into 28
minutes or more of work – and as a
result B-CU committed 26 turnovers.
“The turnovers and the inability to
defend really hurt us,’’ said Reed. “We
probably spend 60 percent of the time
working on defense. It’s a commitment to
being good at it and we just haven’t
made a commitment to it and don’t
understand the significance of it.’’
In the first half someone forgot to tell
visiting Warner Southern College that it
was a smaller NAIA program.
Behind 5-of-13 shooting from 3-point
range, the Royals jumped out to an early
lead and led the entire first half
behind the play of hot-handed guard
Brandon Hamilton, who finished with a
team-high 19 points.
Hamilton made five of six field goals
from beyond the 3-point arc and scored
half of the Royals’ 34 first-half
points.
Keeping B-CU in the game in the opening
half was its size and edge underneath as
the Wildcats outrebounded the visitors
19-14 in the opening half and outscored
them 16-8 in the paint.
With its long-range gunners making
shots, Warner scored 12 of its points
off of B-CU’s 13 first-half turnovers.
Holmes paced the Wildcats in the first
half with 16 points and five rebounds.
The 6-5 junior out of Salisbury, Md.,
hit all five of his field goals and
6-of-7 free throws in the opening half
while all but one of his first-half
rebounds came on the offensive glass.
Warner hit a three to open the second
half before B-CU went on a 10-4 run and
took its first lead of the night at
41-39 off of a jumper by senior Hudson.
Hudson’s shot must’ve been the wakeup
call for the Royals, who responded with
a 15-4 run of their own and claimed a
54-45 lead with just 9:53 left to play.
Behind scoring from Kevan Creppy,
Dominique Whatley and John Anderson, the
Wildcats whittled the lead back down to
56-53 with 5:07 left to play.
Warner then made enough shots down the
line to hold on for the win.
--BCU--