ALC Basketball rallies, but comes up short at Shawnee State University

Portsmouth, OH: The Alice Lloyd Eagles traversed to the Buckeye State on Monday, November 24th to battle a tall and athletic Shawnee State squad. The Bears, who are receiving votes in the latest poll and have losses to highly ranked teams, jumped out to a big lead. However, they were forced to withstand a  nice rally by the Eagles tbefore emerging victorious, 76-63.

In the first half, after ALC opened  the contest with a trifecta from junior guard Desmier Hatchett, SSU used aggresive man defense to roll off a huge 22-4 blitz over the next six minutes. At 13:32, the score read 22-7.

Thye Buckeye club would remain in control and extend their advantage to twenty-one points (48-27).  Fortunately, Eagle freshman forward Evin Eversole would sink a basket just before the buzzer, but the Bluegrass boys would enter the half trailing  48-29.

As the second half opened, the home club would maintain a big 56-37 advantage at 16;00. However, from there, the Caney Creek crew began to fight back. Alice Lloyd  tightened up on the defensive side and received a hoop from Hatchett, a long bomb from junior guard Landon Napier, an old-fashioned three-point play from Eversole, and a nifty driving shot from senior guard Koji Anderson on the offensive side to reel off a 10-0 burst. Now, with 12:32 showing, the score stood 56-37.

Unfortunately for the Kentucky boys, SSU would respond and extend the lead back out to double digits. Even though the Pippa Passes posses fought hard to the bitter end, they could not produce one more big run they so desperately needed to get within striking distance.

For ALC (2-8) Anderson led the with 14 points on 6-11 accuracy. He added 2 steals. Hatchett followed him with 12 points, while Eversole contributed a 11 point/13 rebound double-double. He also led with 3 assists and 3 steals.

On the night, the Eagles shot 42.6% (26-62) from the field, only 22.2% (4-18) from long range, and 70% (7-10) from the foul line. They added 25 rebounds, 7 assists, and 7 steals.

The Bears (4-3) were paced by Jareon Mayo with a game-high 19 points. His team shot 55.8% (29-52) from the field, 35% (7-20) from long range, and 84.6% (11-13) from the charity stripe. They added 30 rebounds, 16 assists, and 6 steals.