By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – One key run in the first half, proved to be much of the difference for the Tennessee Tech men's basketball team Tuesday evening, as the Golden Eagles dropped their non-conference finale at Western Kentucky, 88-68.
"We knew coming in that Western Kentucky is a great basketball team," Tech head coach John Pelphrey said. "I have tremendous respect for this program and its history, which I'm very well aware of having grown up in the state. Diddle Arena is a legendary venue with a lot of prestige that has housed a lot of great championship teams.
"Coach [Rick] Stansbury has a very good basketball team that has beaten several really good opponents, including, most recently, Alabama. Our basketball team showed some growth tonight. We scored nearly 70 points after not having a great first half. There was some good execution, but we just didn't finish the play. We had some wide-open shots and had some layups around the basket we didn't finish."
The Tech offense struggled to get much going offensively early as the Hilltoppers started the contest with a 22-6 lead over the opening eight minutes. The Golden Eagles buckled down on defense from that point on, holding WKU to just 14 points the rest of the half.
The purple and gold forced eight turnovers in the first stanza, including drawing three offensive charges by the Hilltoppers. Tech scored just enough to cut the deficit to single digits, but a buzzer-beating 3-pointer gave WKU a 36-25 advantage headed into the locker room.
In the second half, both offenses came out firing, each shooting above 50 percent from the field over the final 20 minutes of regulation. Tech matched the Hilltopper effort for much of the period, never quite allowing the home team to pull away until free throws caught up with the Golden Eagles. WKU hit 13-of-14 from the charity stripe in the second stanza and ice the game late.
"We have to make some substantial growth on this basketball team from a defensive perspective," Pelphrey said. "We'll go home on break here and when we get back, we really have to focus on getting to a level on defense that is just good. Let's just start there. Not great yet, but just good. I hope that will come with having our team altogether, having some consistent practices and having our team get in shape. Some of our guys haven't even played half of the games yet and I certainly haven't coached in nearly half of them."
After being held scoreless in the first half for the second-straight game, junior guard Jr. Clay came alive to keep the Tech squad in the contest early in the second half. The Chattanooga native scored all of his team-high 15 points in the second stanza, draining a trio of triples.
"I thought we did a great job of staying together tonight," Pelphrey expressed. "There were moments in time the past couple of games where we let a couple of bad plays snowball. I didn't think that was the case tonight. I thought we kept staying in the game. So there was some improvement."
Chicago native Damaria Franklin was the offensive force in the first half, pacing Tech with nine of his 14 points. Both he and Clay dished out three assists in the game. Fellow backcourt mate Keishawn Davidson chipped in a team-high five dimes while battling foul trouble.
Amadou Sylla hauled in a team-best nine rebounds while Shandon Goldman tied his season-high with 11 points.
With the contest at WKU over, the Golden Eagles finally put one of the toughest non-conference slates in program history to rest. Six of Tech's seven non-conference foes won at least 19 games during the 2019-20 campaign, with the lone exception the No. 10-ranked Tennessee Volunteers. This season, those seven opponents have combined for a 44-10 record as of Tuesday evening.
"This is a really good basketball team, certainly one of the best teams in their league," Pelphrey added. "That's kind of been the case for us in our non-conference schedule. I think the combined record of our opponents in non-conference was staggering, which I think has been good for us to prepare. It's good for our development and for our young players to go against good competition. You have to have some pain and suffering when you're growing, and this is going to pay off for us down the line."
The Golden Eagles will return to action after the Christmas break to host Southeast Missouri on Wednesday, Dec. 30. Tip is set for 8:00 p.m. CT and will follow the Tech women's contest against the Redhawks, which is slate for a 5:00 p.m. start.
Photo courtesy of WKU Athletics
