MIAMI, Fla. – Eastern Kentucky University’s men’s basketball team beat No. 18 University of Miami by 28 points, 72-44, on Friday night. The Colonels never trailed on their way to what is believed to be EKU’s first victory ever over a top-25 ranked team.
Playing in his home state, senior Corey Walden led Eastern (6-4) with a game-high 18 points. The Daytona Beach native also had five rebounds, two assists and two steals. Timmy Knipp added 17 points. Eric Stutz scored 13, grabbed nine rebounds and dished out five assists.
Isaac McGlone came off the bench to score 12 points on 4-of-4 shooting from three-point range.
EKU led by two at halftime but began the second stanza with a 24-4 run. McGlone hit two of his treys during the run, his second made it 43-27. Miami (9-2) answered with two free throws at the other end, but Knipp nailed two three-pointers from the left corner on two straight possessions to essentially put the game away. A lay-up by Jaylen Babb-Harrison finished off the run and put the Colonels in front by 22, 51-29, with 8:49 left in the game.
The Hurricanes began the second half 1-of-13 from the field. The Colonels shot 61 percent in the final 20 minutes of the game. Eastern scored more points in the second half (45) than Miami scored in the game (44).
Walden made a pair of long three-pointers in the final five minutes to squelch any thought of a Hurricane comeback.
Eastern scored the first five points of the game. The Colonels led by eight twice. First on a put-back of his own miss by Stutz followed by a reverse lay-up from Walden. A basket by Knipp with 5:04 left in the opening stanza made it 23-15.
The Hurricanes answered with a 10-2 run to tie the game for the only time. Ja’Quan Newton’s two free throws knotted it 25-25 with 2:01 to go. A lay-up by Stutz capped the first half scoring, 27-25, with 1:06 on the clock.
Eastern shot 51 percent from the field for the game, including 54 percent from three-point range (14-for-26). Miami made just 29 percent of its shots, finishing 12-of-41. The Colonels out-rebounded the bigger Hurricanes by 11, 37-26, and committed five fewer turnovers.
Sheldon McClellan, who entered the game averaging 16 points on 58 percent shooting for the season, led Miami with 14 points.
The Colonels will continue their two-game road trip to South Florida on Monday at Florida Atlantic in Boca Raton. The game is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.
NOTES
The victory was the 11th win ever by an Ohio Valley Conference team over a team ranked in the top-25.
Miami came into the game limiting its opponents to 29.2 percent shooting from three-point range. The Colonels made 54 percent (14-of-26).
The Hurricanes had allowed only two opponents to score more than 68 points this season and entered the game holding is foes to 58.8 points per game. EKU finished with 72 points.
The Hurricanes began the day shooting 41.6 percent from three-point range, 16th-best in the nation. The Colonels held them to 29.6 percent shooting from deep (8-for-27).
Eastern Kentucky entered the game second in the nation with an average of 12.3 steals per game and second in turnover margin (+11.2). EKU had only five steals and five fewer turnovers.
Isaac McGlone set a new career-high with 12 pints and also had a career-best four three-pointers.
Timmy Knipp made a career-high five three-pointers.
With nine rebounds, Eric Stutz tied Roland Wierwille for 23rd on EKU’s all-time rebounds list with 520.
Eric Stutz is 44 points away from becoming the 13th player in Eastern Kentucky to score 1,000 points and grab 500 rebounds.
Corey Walden now needs 56 more steals to break the EKU career record of 221.
The all-time series is now tied 2-2.
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