Box Score NORTH MANCHESTER, Ind. - The Mount St. Joseph University men's basketball program traveled to North Manchester, Ind. to take on the Spartans of Manchester University in their first Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference game of 2020 on Friday. The Lions would dominate the action early, but were unable to overcome a season-high 21 turnovers, falling to the Spartans 56-52.
Manchester opened Friday's game with a quick 7-2 spurt but the Lions quickly answered, going on a 22-7 run of their own. The Lions led by double-digits twice in the opening period of action, but Manchester trimmed the lead to just five, at 26-21 entering the intermission. Brady Thomas (Grove City, Ohio/Bishop Ready) led the way for the Lions offensively in the first half scoring nine points.
Both teams battled hard the entire second half, with neither side able to pull away. Neither team had a lead of more than five points at any time during the second 20 minutes of play.
The Lions tied the ball game at 50 with 5:25 to play on a pair of free throws by freshman Peyton Meadors (McCordsville, Ind./Mount Vernon). From that point though the offense for the Lions went ice cold, scoring only one more basket. The went just 1-5 from from the field and 0-2 from the free throw line over the games final 5:25 of play.
The story of the game was the Lions season-high 21 turnovers, which lead to 28 points for the Spartans. They were able to force 20 turnovers by the Spartans but were not able to capitalize, as those 20 turnovers led to just 14 points for the Lions.
Tanner Clos (Alexandria, Ky./Campbell County) led the way for the Lions offensively scoring 17 points, on 5-of-8 shooting from the field and a 6-of-8 effort from the charity stripe. Reece Thomson (Franklin, Ind./Franklin Community) led the Lions effort on the backboards, securing a career-high eight rebounds.
UP NEXT:
The Lions (3-8, 1-3 HCAC) will finally return home after nearly a month of games on the road. They will welcome the defending HCAC Champs the Panthers of Hanover College (8-3, 2-2 HCAC) into the Harrington Center on Wednesday night. The game is scheduled to get underway at 7:30 PM, tune into MSJsports.com for all of your live game coverage.
