CLINTON, Iowa - After dropping two straight, the Ashford University men's basketball team got back on the winning track Thursday night when it hosted the Eagles of AIB in Midwest Collegiate Conference play. The Saints expanded their 16-point halftime lead en route to a 76-54 victory over the visiting Eagles to move to 15-8 overall this season and 7-4 in MCC action.
Milwaukee, Wis.-native Jason Landry led a wave of three AU scorers in double figures with 16 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the floor. Senior guard Jonathan Wyatt netted 15 points while Javier Valdez chipped in ten points.
"We needed to get on track in the worst way after the last two games and we needed to come out and play like we were capable of tonight," opened Head Coach Oliver Drake. "I thought in stretches, we played the best we have all year."
The Saints earned a 44-22 margin in paint points while forcing the Eagles into 19 turnovers which led to a 32-13 advantage in points off of turnovers.
"Inside-out is our philosophy, and I felt like we did a great job with it tonight," continued Drake. "Everything starts on the defensive end for us and we really emphasized that tonight."
Ashford never trailed in the contest and opened the game by scoring 20 of the games' first 28 points which was capped off by a Landry dunk to give the home team a 12-point advantage with 12:08 to play in the first half.
From there, the Ashford advantage just kept growing.
A Matthias Burns bucket in the paint gave AU its largest lead of the half at 19 points, 33-14, before the Saints took a 37-21 decision into the locker room at halftime.
Landry led all scorers at the break with eight points but three other Saints helped out with six points or more. AU also held a 19-11 advantage in rebounding while shooting 50% (15-of-30) from the field in the opening twenty minutes of play.
AIB made a run at the home squad following halftime and eventually whittled the AU advantage back to 11 points, 42-31, before the Saints had enough and ran out on an 18-4 run which lasted just five minutes to give the Saints a 60-35 lead with 9:57 remaining. Two trifectas each from Valdez and Wyatt aided the quick outburst.
"We're still lacking that killer instinct," added Drake. "We need to keep teams down and something we pressure our guys to do is to maintain and build off of leads. We need to understand that when teams are down, we need to keep them down, and I thought we responded well to AIB's run early in the second half."
From there, AU would open out to a 30-point advantage, it's largest of the game, before the Saints' bench closed out the 76-54 win.
Ashford finished 32-of-66 (48.5%) from the field while holding AIB to just 19 makes on 46 attempts.
Freshman DeAndre Lowery Jr. made his fourth start in an Ashford uniform and performed to the tune of six points, five rebounds and six assists to zero turnovers. Burns notched nine points while Kewanee, Ill.-native Peter Tanzillo scored eight point which included a two-handed dunk in the late portions of the second half.
"DeAndre is going to be a huge part in this roll we need to get on and I think he's ready for the challenge," said Drake. "The best is yet to come from him and he really set the tone defensively for us tonight. We're excited about him being able to lead us."
The home team also recorded ten steals while doubling up the Eagles in assists, 20-10.
"We're a veteran team that understands taking care of things on the home court," closed Drake. "The team has to be ready to go come Saturday because we know Waldorf is a good opponent, and I think our guys understand that as well."
The Saints take on the Warriors of Waldorf at 3 p.m. this Saturday, Jan. 28.
