Miscues costly as BU suffers first defeat

FOREST CITY, Iowa -- A season-worst shooting effort and 17 turnovers were too much to overcome for the Bellevue University men's basketball team as the Bruins dropped their first game of the season, falling to Waldorf University 76-68 on Friday afternoon at Hanson Fieldhouse.

Bellevue saw their 12-game unbeaten streak to open the season come to a halt while Waldorf snapped a seven-game losing streak as the Warriors improved to 4-10 with the win.

How It Happened:

Waldorf opened the game on a 7-0 run as the Bruins missed their first three shots and committed a pair of early turnovers. After cutting the score to 7-4, Waldorf got a three from Nick Graves and a transition layup by Krys Watley, prompting a BU timeout at the 15:11 mark.

Ahamad Bynum gave the Bruins their first lead of the game with a driving lay-up following a Cohen Aldridge miss, 24-23 with 5:34 to play in the first half. The Warriors responded by scoring the next six points to retake a 29-24 lead.

For BU, the first half was arguably the worst 20 minutes of basketball they had played all season. The Bruins severely hampered themselves with 10 first half turnovers and shot just 35% from the floor including going 2-13 from deep in the but despite the sloppy half, trailed just 36-30 at the break.

Liam Thompson and RJ Smith made a pair of layups out of the break to quickly pull BU within a bucket but Waldorf again responded as the lead yo-yoed between 2-7 points for much of the second half.

JJ Montgomery sank a pair of free throws out of the under-10 media timeout but threes from Cornelius Porter and Aldridge gave the Warriors their largest lead of the night, 57-47 with 8:45 remaining, before Montgomery hit a triple for BU with 8:02 to play.

Waldorf kept the lead at three-possessions until a three from Jermaine Haliburton cut the lead to 69-63 with 1:34 to play but Bellevue got no closer than five as the Warriors held on for the win.

Top Performers:

Bellevue:

RJ Smith: 16 points (7-10 FG), 13 rebounds, 2 assists
Jermaine Haliburton: 11 points, 6 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 assists
Liam Thompson: 10 points (5-9 FG), 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block
Ahamad Bynum: 9 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks
JJ Montgomery: 8 points, 2-5 3-FG, 1 steal

Waldorf:

Conner Aldridge: 18 points (7-16 FG), 2 steals
Krys Watley: 15 points, 5-5 FT, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals
Nick Graves: 12 points, 2-4 3-FG, 2 rebounds, 2 assists
Cornelius Porter Jr.: 8 points, 2-3 3-FG, 4 assists, 3 steals

Inside the Numbers:

The Bruins committed 17 turnovers while forcing just 12. Waldorf out-scored Bellevue 18-10 in points off turnovers.

Bellevue shot a season-low 38% from the floor and made just 6-23 from deep.

Despite out-rebounding the Warriors 47-27, including 16-5 on the offensive glass, Bellevue only turned that into a 16-6 advantage in second chance points.

BU shot just 10-16 at the free throw line while Waldorf sank 16-18 at the charity stripe.

Up Next:

The Bruins return to action on Friday, Jan. 2 with a Frontier Conference game against Rocky Mountain College from the Fortin Education Center in Billings, Mont. with tip-off set for 8 p.m.