SILOAM SPRINGS, Ark. -- The No. 12 John Brown University men's basketball team reserves scored 60 points and the Golden Eagles tied a 17-year-old program record with 21 triples in a wire-to-wire 100-58 win over Ecclesia (Ark.) inside Bill George Arena on Tuesday night (Dec. 3).
In its 61st season of competition, JBU improved to 10-0 on the season – the first time the program has secured an undefeated start of that length.
Freshman Nemanja Obradovic scored a career-high 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting, while junior Kiree Hutchings hit 5-of-7 behind the arc to contribute a career-high 15 points in John Brown's first victory to hit the century mark of the 2019-20 season. The Golden Eagles have scored over 90 points four times this year.
Sophomore Braden Bayless also contributed a career-high mark, scoring 13 points, as did freshman Adam Asgeirsson – who added 11. Junior Densier Carnes also tallied 12 to round out the six double-digit Golden Eagle scorers.
The hosts raced out to a 27-8 lead midway through the first half and used three straight triples to extend the advantage to 26, 36-10, with just over seven minutes remaining in the first period. Seven more points from Obradovic maintained the Golden Eagle lead at 27 at the half.
Ecclesia (1-11) rode 20 second-half points from Deondre Phillips as the visitors kept the second half more reasonable before John Brown pulled away to a game-high 42-point lead in the final minute of the contest.
Phillips hit 10-of-18 from the floor, including five triples, to lead all players with 28 points in the loss for the Royals. Drew Cone contributed 12 points, while Vlad Chira pulled down six boards.
For the third consecutive game, the Golden Eagles shot over 50 percent from the floor (37-of-68) and finished 21-of-40 from behind the arc. The hosts also out-rebounded the Royals by a 43-27 margin, led by Obradovic's seven boards. Sophomore Ira Perrier grabbed six in the winning effort.
While the visitors nearly shot 40 percent in the first half, the Royals dipped to 33 percent in the second half to finish at a 36 percent clip (21-of-58). Ecclesia hit just 9-of-31 from behind the arc.
Up Next »
John Brown will look to finish the first semester at an impressive 11-0 when it welcomes Philander Smith (Ark.) to Bill George Arena on Tuesday evening (Dec. 10) at 7 p.m. to complete the home-and-home between the teams this season. JBU took a 71-52 win at Mims Gymnasium back on Nov. 11.
