The men's basketball program at Shawnee State, down 57-55 with 9:59 to play in a nonconference contest against the Great Lakes Christian men's basketball program, utilized a game-ending 37-13 spurt fueled by a 26-point barrage from James Jones and 11 second-half points and seven second-half rebounds from EJ Onu to take home a 92-70 victory Saturday afternoon at the Newt Oliver Arena in Rio Grande as part of the Bevo Francis Classic.
Shawnee State, who moved to 4-0 and collected its fourth double-digit victory in doing so, overcame 17 turnovers by shooting 33-of-59 from the field (55.9 percent) and holding Great Lakes Christian to a 27-of-74 mark (36.5 percent) from the field. The Bears recorded 17 assists on their 33 makes -- leading to five players finishing in double-figures as a result -- and collected a 44-32 rebounding advantage (plus-12) despite Onu sitting a large portion of the first half due to two early fouls.
Jones continuing to fire on all cylinders
Continuing to build on an outstanding effort, James Jones, who came into the contest averaging 24 points, seven rebounds and 4.3 assists through his first three contests, actually increased his averages slightly.
Jones, whose 26 points were a game-high, notched 14 points, four rebounds and three assists in the opening half to help keep SSU above water as the Bears took a 45-43 lead at the half. The Chicago, Ill. native then added a dozen additional tallies and four rebounds in the second half to finish with the aforementioned scoring total to go along with eight rebounds and five assists on 11-of-17 shooting from the field.
With Saturday's effort, Jones still hasn't scored less than 18 points in any game this season, and hasn't posted less than six rebounds in any contest as well.
Onu comes up big in second half
Stymied by foul trouble and limited to 1-of-4 shooting en route to a four-point, two-rebound mark at halftime, EJ Onu delivered in a big way in the second half. His 11 points and seven rebounds in the second half came on extremely high efficiency as Onu went 5-of-7 from the field in the final 20 minutes of play en route to finishing with 15 points, nine rebounds, and three blocks in all.
Abergut, Carlisle, Johnson, Wells play key parts in victory
Behind the main duo, the quartet of Issac Abergut, Donoven Carlisle, Kobie Johnson and Jakiel Wells each played integral parts in the outcome. Abergut and Carlisle each scored eight of their 10 total points in the opening half, with the latter collecting six of his nine rebounds in the second 20-minute stanza to head up the charge.
Johnson, meanwhile, caught the hot hand in the second half by going 3-of-5 from the field and 2-of-4 from three-point range en route to a 12-point outing in just under 12 minutes of play, while Wells, while not having his best shooting performance, was extremely efficient in running the show as evidenced by his seven assists to just one turnover -- proving crucial in setting his teammates up for open looks in the 22-point victory.
Next Up
Shawnee State (4-0) has one scheduled game before heading into the Thanksgiving Break -- a 3 p.m. tipoff against archrival Rio Grande Wednesday, Nov. 25. Catch the action at portal.stretchinternet.com/shawneest.
For more information on SSU Bears Athletics, visit www.ssubears.com or visit the Twitter and Facebook pages at https://twitter.com/SSUBears and https://www.facebook.com/SSUBears. For more information on how to join the SSU Bear Club or for sponsorship of specific SSU players or events, visit https://givetossu.com/bear-club and https://givetossu.com/sponsorthebears.
