Eagles Taken Down by Johnson on the Road

Knoxville, TN - Reinhardt Men's Basketball continues to struggle on the road this season losing to Johnson Royals in the midweek AAC game, 84-67.  Six of the seven losses this season have been road games with Pikeville being the only home loss.

The Eagles had a tough night shooting both from the field and behind the three-point line.  Reinhardt shot just 33.3% from the field and 21.4% on three-pointers.  They turned the ball over 13 times in the game, which is slightly lower than some of the other road losses.

The Royals shot almost 50% from the field, however, they did struggle as well from behind the three-point arch. 

Tyler Smith led the team with 21 points and 7 rebounds. He was joined by Nate Jones and Nekhi Fisher in double-figure scoring.  Jones finished the game with 16 points and Fisher had 11 points.  Nate Louis was on the edge of double-figures scoring 8 points.

Reinhardt was able to keep the game close in the first ten minutes of the first half as both teams traded leads in the first twelve minutes, but in the final eight minutes of the half - the Royals started to pull away.  A few missed shots and costly turnovers allowed the Royals to extend a three-point lead to fifteen points going into the halftime break. Johnson led 45 to 30 at the half.

Reinhardt was not able to make a solid second-half run and the Royals kept the double-digit lead.  The Eagles will have to put this loss behind them and get ready to get back on the winning track this weekend with a home AAC game against Bluefield. They are 3-5 in the conference currently, but there is plenty of season left for Reinhardt to turn around their record.  With so many new pieces on the team, it is going to take the entire season for the team to gel and come together. There are definite signs of what this team is capable of, but time and getting a few players healed is going to make the Eagles a tough team to deal with when the AAC Tournament rolls around.

The game this Saturday is set for 2 pm at the Brown Athletic Center with the Women's team playing #13 ranked Cumberlands (KY) immediately afterward.