BOLIVAR, Mo. -
Jaylon Smith nearly had a double-double, scoring 33 points to go with nine rebounds, and
Anthony Virdure scored 22 as the Lincoln men's basketball team opened its 2016-17 season with an 83-71 win over Mary at the SBU Bearcat Classic on Friday afternoon (Nov. 11).
Smith scored 21 points in the second half, as Lincoln (1-0) rebounded from a 33-31 halftime deficit and a 51-44 Mary (0-1) lead with 13 minutes remaining in the game. Smith made four of his five three-point tries in the second half, helping LU to shoot .583 beyond the arc over the game's final 20 minutes. As a team, Lincoln shot .541 from the floor in the second half and out-scored the Marauders, 28-16, during the final 10 minutes of the contest.
Virdure added five rebounds and four assists to the Lincoln cause while
Maurice Mason contributed nine points, five boards, two assists and a pair of steals. Lincoln finished with eight steals on the afternoon and scored 19 points off turnovers. LU also held a dominating 20-4 advantage on second-chance points and received 39 points from its bench.
Both teams started the game slow, combining for 17 turnovers during the first half. With 6:10 until halftime, Mary took an eight-point, 30-22 lead on a layup.
Jaylon Smith scored five-straight points to cut the lead down to three, and a
Rod Ollison jumper made it a one-point game. A tip-in by
Tacourrus Mattox swung the advantage back to Lincoln, but the Marauders finished the half with three unanswered points.
In the second half, Smith sparked the LU comeback by hitting back-to-back three-pointers, and later hit another trey to knot the score at 55. An old-fashioned three-point play by Virdure gave LU the lead, and layups by Virdure and Ollison later gave Lincoln a nine-point, 65-56 lead it would never relinquish.
Ollison provided eight points, three boards and two steals to the winning cause while
Richie Lewis also had two steals to go with seven points, six rebounds and a pair of assists. Mattox grabbed three boards while
O'Shai Clark rounded out the scoring with two points and a steal.
The Blue Tigers will remain in Bolivar on Saturday (Nov. 12) to play Minnesota-Crookston at 1:30 p.m. CST.
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