Men's Basketball Comes Back Victorious Over Knights

By Mike DeVader, Reinhardt Director of Athletic Communications & Media

GRAYSON, Ky. – Reinhardt men's basketball got back to its winning ways on Saturday afternoon and nearly put up triple digits in the process, as the Eagles earned the first road win for head coach Justin Newton, 92-85, over Kentucky Christian.

The hometown team (3-5) had five players hit 10-plus points in the victory, including a team-high 20 tallies from Josh Daniels off the bench on 9-of-17 shooting. Dwayne Wilson was right behind him with 19 points on 7-for-11 from the floor.

"Anytime you can win on the road it's a good feeling, and we really played well offensively minus the turnovers," Newton said. "It was a total team win. Everyone contributed tonight, and after being up 20, to sustain their comeback and stay together was really good. We definitely didn't guard like we wanted to, but we did a much better job rebounding and I was really pleased with that."

Reinhardt put one of its best performances of the year together against the Knights, putting up 50 points in the first half and combining to hit 56.7 percent on the day, including eight 3-pointers.

Individually, Marcus Kirkland (15 points) and Blake MacIntyre (14) also had strong performances to help break the team's skid.

A relatively low-scoring game in the first part of the contest had both teams feeling each other out and the Knights eventually regained an advantage with just under 10 minutes until halftime. The Eagle offense would hit another level in the final minutes of the opening period with a barrage of shots and defensive effort.

After hitting back-to-back treys heading into the break, Reinhardt finished off a 12-4 run in just over the final two minutes.

The shots would continue to fall for the Eagles in the first portion of the second half and they would eventually push their advantage to 20 at 71-51 with 12:44 left in the game. Over the next three minutes, however, the Kentucky Christian attack would come to life and storm back into contention and get within five points at 73-68 after a quick 17-2 spurt.

The Knights would get within four, but the pendulum would swing back in favor of the visitors as they began to connect on shot attempts once again. A 12-point cushion with five minutes left in regulation proved-to-be just enough after Kentucky Christian put another comeback attempt together before running out of gas in the end.

In total, the Knights had 21 miscues, which helped combat 19 makes from the 3-point-line.

Daniels also added nine rebounds and six assists.

The club steps out of conference action to take on Alice Lloyd (Ky.) back at home on Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m. inside the Brown Athletic Center. 

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