Eastern Kentucky sophomore scores 41 points, but WKU tops the Colonels in rivalry game
Eastern Kentucky has a rising star on the basketball court.
Western Kentucky simply had too many weapons for him to make the difference Friday night.
EKU sophomore Jomaru Brown scored 41 points — more than any Colonels player in 18 years — but it was the Hilltoppers’ balanced approach that won this edition of the in-state rivalry, 79-71.
The Colonels — playing in front of a raucous home crowd — used a 13-1 run to take a 21-16 lead early in the first half and kept the score close as some of WKU’s key players struggled out of the gate.
The trio of Camron Justice, Taveion Hollingsworth and Charles Bassey all had their problems in the early going. Another starter, senior guard Jared Savage — arguably the team’s best player in the first half — went down with an injury.
Others stepped up, and the Hilltoppers took control as a result.
“I’m awfully proud of our kids — the way we responded,” WKU head coach Rick Stansbury said afterward. “And we did it different ways. We lose one of our senior captains, one of our better players in Jared. We had to play the last 25 minutes without him. But that’s what a team’s about. We had guys come off that bench and step up. And we had these two guys come off that bench … and they did what I believe they can do every game.”
Stansbury was sitting in between two reserves — freshman guard Jordan Rawls and super-athletic junior wing Josh Anderson — and they had both come up big for the Hilltoppers.
Rawls, who had scored a total of 12 points over WKU’s first two games, was 4-for-4 from the floor and made two three-pointers in the first half Friday night. He finished with 14 points.
Anderson, a Top 100 recruit out of high school, was electric in transition, easily adapting to the frenzied style that Eastern Kentucky forces its opponents to play. Anderson went just 1-for-5 from the floor, but he made nine of 12 free throws and came up with five steals.
“Both of them were huge,” Stansbury said. “It’s a different style to play against. It’s hard to execute, because it’s a scramble game. You have to make basketball plays.”
The Toppers did that. They committed 23 turnovers — part of the game when you’re playing against this Colonels team — but dished out 19 assists on 28 made field goals.
WKU’s star players didn’t get off to the best start.
Justice, who averaged a team-high 18.5 points and made seven of 13 threes over the Hilltoppers’ first two games, missed all three of his three-point attempts and was held scoreless in the first half against the Colonels. He didn’t score his first points until making a free throw with 5:18 left in the game. He finished with just three points and no made field goals in 34 minutes.
Hollingsworth, the team’s second-leading scorer, tallied five points before picking up his second foul with 9:38 left in the first half. Bassey was effective in the paint early but picked up his second foul with 8:41 left in the first half.
Both Hollingsworth and Bassey were relegated to the WKU bench until after halftime.
Still, the Toppers went on a 19-5 run late in the first half to open up a 15-point lead, getting key contributions from the other two starters — Carson Williams and Savage — as well as Anderson and Rawls to build the advantage and silence the Eastern Kentucky crowd.
“We need them to play every night like this,” Stansbury said of his two reserves. “The better they practice, the more they play. So, this is not something that’s abnormal for these guys to play the amount of minutes they play — absolutely not. We need them playing like this all the time. And both of them are capable of it.”
A major mismatch
Bassey — a former five-star recruit and possible future NBA Draft pick — showed what he was capable of in the second half.
After playing just seven minutes before halftime due to foul trouble, the 6-foot-11 center from Nigeria exploded out of the locker room, showing off an array of post moves and finishing off some thunderous dunks and alley-oops while making it tough on EKU on both sides of the court.
Colonels head coach AW Hamilton called Bassey “a lottery pick” after the game. He finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds — leading the Toppers in both categories — in 26 minutes, barely leaving the floor in the second half.
Hamilton knew he would be a tough matchup for his team.
“It’s so hard, because it’s not just about Charles Bassey,” he said. “You talk about Camron Justice. Then you talk about Carson Williams, and then Hollingsworth, and then Anderson, and then Savage. And you’re like, ‘Where do you help off of?’ We did a great job, at times, helping on the roll, but it’s tough. And, then what do you do in the ball screens. We hard-hedged it — you know, do you trap it, do you string it? They’re a hard team to prepare for. And that’s why they’re picked to win their league. They’re going to have a great season.”
Eastern Kentucky’s ‘superstar’
The Hilltoppers got the victory, but it was Eastern Kentucky sophomore Jomaru Brown who had the most memorable performance of the evening.
Brown — a 6-foot-2 guard from Raleigh, N.C. — scored 20 points in the first half to keep the Colonels within striking distance, eclipsed his previous career high of 31 points midway through the second half, and banked in a three-pointer with 13 seconds left to cut WKU’s lead to 78-71.
Eastern Kentucky wouldn’t get any closer than that after trailing by double digits for nearly all of the second half, but Brown had put an exclamation point on his night. That banked-in three gave him 41 points.
“He was incredible,” Stansbury said. “He made shots from everywhere.”
Brown ended up going 16-for-28 from the floor, 4-for-11 from three-point range, and 5-for-6 from the foul line. No EKU player had scored as many in a game since Lavoris Jerry also tallied 41 against Eastern Illinois in 2001.
“You watched the game,” Hamilton said. “I don’t have to say much about it. … I’ve been saying this since the day we got him. I’m a huge believer in him. I coach him harder than anybody else on my team. And he will shake his head and agree with that. I’m all over him every day in practice, and he knows I love him. He’s got a chance to be a superstar. That’s what he has a chance to be.
“He’s got a special talent, and he’s a special young man.”
Next games
Monday: Campbellsville at Western Kentucky, 8 p.m. EST
Tuesday: Alice Lloyd at Eastern Kentucky, 7 p.m. EST
This story was originally published November 15, 2019 at 8:59 PM.
