KCAC

[Men's Basketball] Men's Basketball Falcons cruise to 78-60 win at Sterling

WICHITA, Kan. – The Friends University Falcons followed up their upset victory Saturday night over (RV) Southwestern College with a dominating 78-60 win at the Sterling College Warriors tonight (Feb. 9) in Sterling, Kan. The win moves the Falcons into the eighth spot in the KCAC, with seeds 4-8 scheduled to host a KCAC tournament opening round game on Feb 22.The outcome was never in doubt, as consecutive layups by Ian Konek (JR/Long Beach, Calif.) gave the Falcons an early 8-5 lead and they never trailed again.Threes by Konek and Matt Reeves (FR/Mansfield, Texas) helped push the lead up to 16-8 and a dunk from Connor Kern (FR/Prosper, Texas) extended the edge up to double-figures at 21-10 at the 11:02 mark of the opening half.The lead stayed in double-figures the rest of the night and the Falcons continued to pull away behind nine points from Matt Reeves that anchored an 18-2 burst for a commanding 34-12 lead with exactly seven minutes left in the first stanza.The Falcons wound up with a 43-28 lead at the break and eight points from Kern then fueled a 13-4 spurt to begin the second half and push the lead to a game-high 24 points with 13:14 remaining.Friends never loosened its grip from that point, maintaining at least a 17-point lead for the duration of the second half."That was a quality team win," said Friends men's basketball head coach Austin McBeth. "We started the game strong and I thought we stayed focused throughout the night. We are really starting to put a full game together, and I'm proud of how our guys are enjoying the success of their teammates." Kern finished with a game and career-high 20 points along with a career-high tying 12 rebounds for his second career double-double. Reeves and Konek each scored 17 points, while Tim Barbieri (JR/Abilene,Kan. ) pulled down 11 boards. Alex Gray (FR) led the Falcons (9-18, 8-13 KCAC) with a career-high tying five assists.Derrian Reed paced the Warriors (2-25, 0-21 KCAC) with 19 points, with Jalen Jackson scoring 12 along with a team-best six boards. Colby Baker also scored in double-figures with 10 points for Sterling.The Falcons dominated the stat sheet, leading the Warriors in rebounding (53-38), assists (19-5) and points in the paint (44-28). Sterling held a 17-11 edge in second chance points and the bench scoring was even 27-27.Next up for the Falcons is a home matchup with Tabor College Saturday evening (Feb. 12) at 8 pm inside the Garvey Center. Friends won the first meeting over the Bluejays 77-66 on Jan. 5 in Hillsboro, Kan.