‘A really big opportunity.’ Inspiring EKU win sets up early-season fight for first in ASUN.
The Eastern Kentucky University men’s basketball team is starting to figure things out early in its second season in the Atlantic Sun Conference.
The Colonels defeated Florida Gulf Coast 97-76 on Thursday night in Richmond, scoring their third consecutive conference victory and improving to 4-1 in league play while moving to 11-7 overall.
The victory set up an early-season battle for first place Saturday when Stetson (10-6, 5-0) visits Baptist Health Arena for a 3 p.m. tip-off.
In their first season in the ASUN in 2021-22, after moving from the Ohio Valley Conference, Eastern Kentucky finished 5-11 in league play and fifth in the six-team West Division.
The now-14-team ASUN is no longer split into divisions. Entering Saturday, the Colonels are tied with Liberty and Kennesaw State at 4-1 behind Stetson.
There’s a long way to go, of course, with a dozen conference games upcoming for the Colonels after Saturday including seven on the road, where EKU is 2-5 this season. Still, Coach A.W. Hamilton recognized the weight of the moment.
“We’ve got the No. 1 team in the conference coming in here, who’s playing awesome,” he said. “Saturday’s a really big opportunity for us against the best team in our league.”
On Thursday night, Eastern Kentucky was in control from the outset. The Colonels scored the game’s first 13 points, holding Florida Gulf Coast without a field goal until the game was five minutes old. Four different Colonels contributed to the opening 13-0 salvo led by five points from Michael Moreno and four by Isaiah Cozart.
An 11-0 run later in the first half extended EKU’s lead to 30-11, and the Colonels were up 45-34 at halftime. FGCU (13-5, 3-2) never trimmed the deficit to less than nine in the second half during which Eastern’s lead grew as large as 23 points.
“We shared the ball,” Hamilton said. “We kept things really simple on the offensive end. And our defense was really good. We blocked shots. We made rotations. We did a good job guarding their shooters and made other guys hit shots. From start to finish we played a really good game.”
Six Colonels scored in double figures, led by 18 points from Turner Buttry. Moreno and Cooper Robb scored 14 each. Dardan Kapiti finished with 11, and Cozart and Leland Walker contributed 10 apiece. Hamilton also made note of the fact that Tayshawn Comer had seven assists, and Devontae Blanton and Walker had six each. Blanton, who leads the Colonels in scoring this season at 15.7 points per game, was limited to eight points on Thursday night but contributed eight rebounds and a steal without committing a turnover in addition to his six assists.
The 97 points were the most EKU has ever scored in an ASUN game.
Buttry made six of his 11 three-point attempts. Robb and Moreno each went 4-for-9 from beyond the arc. As a team, the Colonels shot 17-of-38 from three (44.7 percent).
While the Colonels sizzled, Florida Gulf Coast made just 33.3 percent of its shots from the field (24-of-72) and 28.6 percent from three (8-for-28).
“It shows that our defense, when we really buckle down and sit and guard, it works and tells that our coach isn’t crazy,” Moreno said. “He says it works, when you really commit to it so, to have that show throughout an entire 40 minutes is great.”
Hamilton was also pleased to see all facets of a game come together.
“We’ve had games this year where we’ve had a team on the ropes and haven’t been able to knock them down,” the coach said. “Tonight we were able to do that and finish off this game.”
Saturday
Stetson at Eastern Kentucky
When: 3 p.m.
TV: ESPN Plus (online only)
Records: Stetson 10-6 (5-0 ASUN), EKU 11-7 (4-1)