For one night at least, the Lindenwood men’s basketball team solved its road problems. The Lions advanced to the HAAC Postseason Tournament championship game on Friday evening with a 57-51 road victory over Central Methodist.
The first half looked like it was going to be a typical game away from St. Charles for Lindenwood as the regular season HAAC Champions jumped out to a 29-22 lead. Lindenwood shot just 36.4 from the field in the period, while the Eagles made half of their attempts.
With their backs and season against the wall, the Lions responded with a second half comeback. They set the tone early by scoring the first eight points of the period, six coming from
Richard Rose. The two teams traded leads several times and were tied at 43 with 6:32 remaining in the game. At that point, Lindenwood went on a 10-2 run to take an eight-point lead. Central Methodist scored six straight points in the final minute to pull within two and had a chance to tie with free throws with 10 seconds remaining. The Eagles missed the front end though and Lindenwood closed out the game with four free throws.
For the game, Lindenwood shot 45.5 percent from the field, including 54.4 percent in the final half. The team made four-of-11 three-pointers and 13-of-16 free throws. Defensively, the Lions held the NAIA’s top three-point shooting team to just 26.7 percent from beyond the arc. Lindenwood outrebounded the Eagles 30-22 and it only turned the ball over 10 times.
Brett Thompson led the Lions with a double-double of 20 points and10 rebounds. Fourteen of his points came in the second half and he was eight-of-ten from the field for the game. Rose finished with 18 points, making six-of-11 from the field, including three-of-four from three-point range.
Joey Parker had seven points and six assists, and
Toriano Adams had eight points.
The Lions, who are now 23-9 on the year, hope they have one more road victory in them when they travel to William Jewell on Monday for the HAAC Tournament Championship. Tipoff for the contest, which will decide which team receives an automatic bid to the NAIA Division I National Tournament, is 7 p.m.