The No. 4 Lindenwood men's basketball team played one of its most complete games of the season on Saturday afternoon during a 97-73 victory over MidAmerica Nazarene. The victory extended the team's winning streak to 16 games.
The Pioneers scored the first basket of the game but it was all Lions after that. With the scored tied 6-6, Lindenwood went on a 13-0 run Five different Lions had a field goal in that span, including three-pointers by
Richard Rose,
Brandon Kunkel, and
Michael Boos.
Lindenwood went on to lead by a 50-30 margin at halftime and it led by as much as 33 in the second half before the Pioneers closed out the game on a 9-0 run.
Offensively, the Lions scored their most points in over three years. The Lions shot 65.4 percent from the field in the first half and finished the game with a 56.3 percent mark. Lindenwood made 11 of 22 from three-point range and 14 of 18 from the free throw line.
On defense, the Lions held MidAmerica Nazarene to just 42.9 percent shooting from the field, including 34.2 percent in the first half. The conference's leading scorer, Rustin Dowd, was held to just five of 14 shooting from the field and he finished over seven points below his season average. MidAmerica Nazarene was also just four of 12 from three-point range and turned the ball over 12 times, leading to 17 Lindenwood points off turnovers.
David King led Lindenwood's offense with a career high 20 points. He made nine of 11 from the field and also led the team with nine rebounds.
Kramer Soderberg finished with 15 points and dished out nine assists.
The freshmen duo of Boos and
Garrett Reeg came off the bench to score 14 and 13, respectively. Boos had four three-pointers and Reeg grabbed eight rebounds.
Alfred Nelson finished with nine points, and
Alex Bazzell and Rose each scored eight. Rounding out the scoring was Kunkel with six and
Efkan Eren with four.
Lindenwood improves to 17-1 on the season and 8-0 in conference play. The Lions will be off until next Saturday when they travel to nationally-ranked William Jewell.
