RICHMOND, Ky. – Senior forward Eric Stutz did not miss a shot and the Eastern Kentucky University men’s basketball team never trailed Saturday night, defeating the University of Cincinnati Clermont College 115-50 at McBrayer Arena.
The Colonels (3-0) used a 20-4 run midway through the first half to put the visiting Cougars (2-4) away.
Stutz led EKU with a career-high 23 points on a perfect 10-of-10 shooting. He made his only three-point attempt and was also 2-for-2 from the free throw line.
The 6-foot-8 Stutz dominated a smaller Cougar frontcourt, pulling in six rebounds, two of those offensive. Stutz made his first three-pointer of the season at the 17:34 mark of the second half with a long-range shot from the right wing.
Eastern Kentucky out-scored the visitors 60-16 in the paint.
The Colonels outscored Clermont 57-26 in the second half, including a 22-0 run that gave the home team a 92-28 lead.
Despite the large margin of victory, EKU as a team didn’t shoot well from three-point range for most of the game. The Colonels missed their first six threes and started just 1-of-10 from outside. Eastern went into halftime making just 5-of-19 from behind the arc.
The Colonels started to heat up from outside midway through the second half, finishing 11-of-35 (31.4 percent) on the night from deep.
The Colonel pressure defense forced 32 Clermont turnovers, and led to a 43-3 advantage in points off turnovers. Redshirt sophomore guard Jaylen Babb-Harrison led Eastern with six steals and sophomore guard Isaac McGlone added five. McGlone also had seven points, seven assists and six rebounds.
EKU limited Clermont to just 30.8 percent shooting during the game and just 7-of-22 from three-point range. The Cougars started out 3-of-5 from deep, but made just 5-of-17 the rest of the way.
Babb-Harrison added 22 points to the effort and senior guard Corey Walden had 18 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals. Junior guard Ja’Mill Powell scored 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting.
The Colonels will now go on the road for the first time this season, playing Wednesday at Southern Utah and then Saturday, Nov. 29 at BYU.
NOTES
Eric Stutz surpassed his previous career high of 22 points. He did that twice – versus Brescia on Dec. 3, 2011 and against Southeast Missouri in the quarterfinals of the OVC Tournament on March 7, 2013.
The most points ever scored by an EKU team was 122 against Akron on Jan. 19, 1980.
Eastern Kentucky entered the game with the 14th longest home court non-conference winning streak in the nation. That streak is now at 25 straight games.
Eastern Kentucky is 31-3 in its last 34 home games.
Isaac McGlone set new career-highs for assists (7) and rebounds (6). He tied his career-high with five steals.
All 10 players available for to play in the game scored at least three points.
Corey Walden is 27 points away from becoming the 33rd player to score 1,000 points as a Colonel. He now needs 72 more steals to break the EKU career record of 221.
Eric Stutz is 112 points and 16 rebounds away from becoming the 13th player in Eastern Kentucky to score 1,000 points and grab 500 rebounds.
This was the first-ever meeting between the two schools.
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