It was a remarkable year for the Lindenwood athletic program in 2009-10. Over the next 10 weeks, www.lindenwoodlions.com will bring you the top 10 moments of the last school year.

The No. 5 moment comes from the men's basketball program and its early season upset win over the No. 1 ranked team in the country, Robert Morris.
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The 2009-10 basketball season started all the way back in May 2009 when Lindenwood hired Brad Soderberg to lead the Lions basketball program. After a long summer and fall of practicing and preparing it was finally time for the team to play some games.

The season started with the Lions falling to the nationally ranked McKendree Bearcats 73-62. The Lions did not have much time to think about the loss as the team was right back on the court, but this time it was against the No. 1 ranked team in the country, Robert Morris.

Not only was this the first time that Soderberg would take on the top team in the country, but it was the first time he would coach a game at the Hyland Performance Arena, home of the Lions.

“Going into the Robert Morris game I was just hoping we'd play better in front of our home crowd than we did in the first game against McKendree,” Soderberg said.

The Eagles came to St. Charles with a lofty ranking and one of the top scoring offenses from the previous season. In 2008-09 the Eagles averaged over 86 points a night.

So needless to say, defense was going to be a big part of the Lions game plan against the Eagles.

“I believed that in order for this program to make their mark on the national level, we will have to defend for 40 minutes every game,” Soderberg said.

As the game began the Lions started off well jumping out to an 8-3 lead after Alfred Nelson hit a jumper to cap a 6-0 run.

The Eagles came right back and tied the game with just under 12 minutes to play in the first half. Early in the contest it was a game of runs as the two teams would go back and forth. But at the 11 minute mark the Lions took back control of the game.

The Lions scored 10 straight points to take a double digit lead, 22-12, with eight minutes to play in the first half. The run was capped off by a Brandon Kunkel three-pointer.

With a 10 point lead the Lions would continue to lock down the Eagles on defense. The lead would shrink to five, but Lindenwood would continue to click on offense and extend the lead back up to 13 after Toriano Adams would make a pair of free throws.

With just under three minutes to play in the first half both teams went cold from the field. Neither squad could muster any points until there was a minute to play in the opening half. Finally the Eagles were able to put the ball in the hoop and cut the 13 point lead down to six as the opening half came to a close.

Even though the Eagles went on a late run to cut the lead to single digits the Lions played one of its best defensive halves of the season. The defense created nine turnovers in the opening half and turned those turnovers into 12 points. They also held them to 37 percent shooting from the field and just 12 percent from behind the arc.

Though the numbers said the Lions played good defense the head coach wasn't exactly sure.

“I didn't think we played THAT well but I remember thinking we played a better first half than we did at McKendree,” said Soderberg.

The second half started with Richard Rose hitting the first shot of the half and the lead would extend to nine. That would be the biggest lead for the rest of the game for the Lions as the Eagles would start to find their rhythm.

Robert Morris would get within a point after Robert Jones would connect on a free throw with 9:28 to go and the Lions knew that they were going to have a battle on their hands.

“I'm a one possession at a time guy. I knew they would make a run at us,” Soderberg said. “However, I just kept reminding our guys to make the next possession a good one.”

With the lead down to one the Lions would once again go on a 5-0 run to extend the lead to six, but three minutes later the Eagles would take the lead for the first time after Yamani Ball connected on a jumper.

The lead was the first for the Eagles since the score was 12-10. The lead only lasted 24 seconds as a the Lions would go on a 6-0 run, sparked by four points from Adams and two from Shane Williams to put the home team on top 66-61 with just over a minute to play in the game.

With 46 seconds to go Robert Morris got within three points on a Jones lay-up and after Nelson missed the front end of a one-and-one for the Lions, the Eagles would tie the score with a three pointer by Billy Rush. The game was tied with just eight seconds to play.

“After they hit the three my immediate thought was what was the score and how much time do we have as it always is for me in the last three minutes of a game,” Soderberg said about his thoughts after the Eagles tied the score. “I was confident we could get a good look at a game winner.”

With the game seemingly heading into overtime the Lions would call a timeout to try and get a good look for a game winner. The ball would eventually make it into the hands of Rose.

“I wanted to get a good shot. Sometimes designing a one-dimensional play is detrimental to the team,” Soderberg said. “That being said I'm thrilled Rich got the shot because he is a veteran player, a shot maker and a guy who has been in that position many times.”

As Rose took the inbounds play he scurried into the front court and with 0.9 seconds to play in the game he faked a shot and a Robert Morris defender came crashing into Rose. The referee would whistle the Eagles for a foul and Rose would have a chance to put his team back in the lead.

Coach Soderberg was confident with Rose going to the line, “he's our best FT shooter and he's money in the last two minutes.”

And money is exactly what he was. Rose would calmly sink both free throws to give the Lions a two-point lead and after a desperation half-court shot by the Eagles would fall short the Lions would win 68-66.

After the game Soderberg said, “I want to single out Adams and Rose for their play tonight. T.A. was a warrior down low even though he was undersized and Richard has a knack of drawing fouls which he did at the perfect time.”

Adams was a warrior in the paint going a perfect 8-for-8 from the field scoring 20 points and adding six rebounds. Rose was the game's leading scorer with 25 points. The Lions' defense held the Eagles to 43 percent shooting and just 36 percent from behind the arc.

After the win the Lions would go on and beat another ranked team the next night in Life University and win the next seven out of eight games. The game also was the turning point in which Lindenwood created a true home court advantage. The Lions would lose just once in 14 games at the Hyland Performance Arena in 2009-10.

Video of the final play of the game

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