PINEVILLE, La. – The Louisiana College men's basketball team got its first taste of life in the NAIA, and the Wildcats enjoyed it, holding Lindsey Wilson under 30 points in both halves on their way to a 73-52 win over the Blue Raiders Saturday afternoon at H.O. West Fieldhouse.
With it being the first game of the season for both teams, it took a little bit for both sides to get going. But once the Wildcats' first basket went in two minutes into the contest, the motor seemed to get going for LC as the Wildcats went on an 11-3 run to take an 11-5 lead following a made jumper by
Jakobey Hitchens. After trailing 2-0, LC would not trail again in the contest following that run.
Lindsey Wilson did battle back to tie the score at 14-14, but the Wildcats had their own answer with an 11-2 run that ended with a
Malik Cooper steal and score on the other end to make the score 25-16 with less than 4:30 remaining before halftime. A
Bailey Hardy three with just seconds left sent the Wildcats to the locker room with a 36-28 lead at the break.
The second half is where the Wildcats really started to pull away. A
KJ Bilbo three-pointer less than three minutes into the period gave LC its first double-digit lead at 44-34. LC's lead continued to grow as
Bailey Hardy put back a Bilbo missed three-pointer for a 16-point lead at 53-37 with 12 minutes left. The Wildcats slowly crept further away from the Blue Raiders as a pair of free throws by
Kae'ron Baker with less than 8:30 left made it a 19-point LC lead at 61-42. The lead hit 20 points with 4:59 in the contest off a pair of free throws by
KJ Bilbo that made it 70-50 Wildcats as both teams saw out the rest of the game from there.
"I thought our guys competed very hard today," said Louisiana College head men's basketball coach
Reni Mason. "It's always good to start the season with a win but we'll go back to work tomorrow to clean up some things we didn't do well today."
Kae'ron Baker started a new season just like he ended the last, leading the team in scoring with 19 points and assists with six. He also added three steals.
KJ Bilbo added 14 points in the win.
Bailey Hardy contributed 13 points and was tied for the team lead with six rebounds.
Ferontay Banks also had six rebounds and had a pair of steals.
LC shot 47.4% as a team in the contest, including 40% from three-point range. The Wildcats defense held the Blue Raiders to just 37.8% shooting in the contest, including just one made three-pointer in the contest out of nine attempts from deep.
The Wildcats (1-0) look to make it two straight wins to start the season on Tuesday as Philander Smith comes to town for a midweek match-up. Tip-off against the Panthers (1-0) is set for 6:00 P.M. at H.O. West Fieldhouse.
