The Lindenwood Men's Basketball team (2-1, 0-0 OVC) earned their second consecutive victory on Saturday afternoon, defeating East-West University by a final score of 115-44. Makhan Diouf and Malek Archie each recorded the first double-doubles of their careers, with Diouf leading the way offensively with a team-high 18 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the floor.
After the Phantoms grabbed an early 3-1 lead less than a minute into the contest, the Lions responded with an 8-0 run, highlighted by four points from Diouf. Just before the under 16 media timeout, Archie scored five consecutive points, including his first three pointer of the contest, to extend the Lindenwood lead to 21-9 with 14:52 remaining. The Lions continued to find success from beyond the arc following the timeout, as Noah Taitz and Shamiere Green connected on back-to-back three pointers to spark another Lindenwood run. Green added two more triples in the first half, while the Lions' defense limited East-West to 24% shooting from the floor in the opening 20 minutes of the contest as Lindenwood carried a 63-24 advantage into halftime. Diouf led the way with 10 points and eight rebounds in the opening half, while the Lions knocked down seven three pointers and outrebounded the Phantoms 30-15.
Following the opening two minutes of the second half, Lindenwood put together a dominant 27-0 run over a nine minute stretch to extend their advantage to 61 points at 92-31. Diouf contributed eight points during the run, while Kellen Robinson added six points and capped the stretch with a steal that led to a fastbreak layup on the other end of the floor. During the final six minutes, Marko Lukanowski, RJ Chastang, Parker Seithel, and Miles Elliott combined to score 16 of Lindenwood's final 18 points as the Lions cruised to a 71-point victory.
Defensively, the Lions forced 17 East-West turnovers that resulted in 24 points and held the Phantoms to just 25.8% shooting from the floor for the game.
"I thought we did a better job today on the defensive end of the floor than from Thursday." said head coach Kyle Gerdeman. "We're trying to teach our guys to build habits where every time down the floor we are engaged defensively. We took a step in the right direction, but we have to keep making progress on that side of the ball."
The Lions will travel to Lincoln, Nebraska on Wednesday night for their next contest, taking on the Nebraska Cornhuskers at 8 PM CT. The matchup will be broadcast nationally on FS1.
