WICHITA, Kan. – The Friends University Falcons took control in the second half and held off the Sterling College Warriors for an 86-79 victory tonight (Jan. 8) inside the Garvey Center. The win pushes the Falcons into second place in the KCAC with a 7-2 league record.
The Falcons found themselves down 26-18 when a three-point play by Cahlese Lee ignited an 11-3 spurt that tied the score at the 5:58 mark of the first half.
With the score still even at 31-31, the Warriors doubled up the Falcons 14-7 the remainder of the half to lead 45-38 at the break.
The Falcons came out of the gate strong with the first 11 points after halftime to take their first lead since the 13:01 mark of the opening half. Five straight points from Kee'on Hutton punctuated the run and made it 49-45 nearly four minutes into the second half.
Sterling battled back to tie the score twice, but the Falcons never trailed again, holding off the Warriors at every turn.
A score by Collin Maclin snapped what proved to be the final gridlock of the evening to put the Falcons on top 53-51 with 14:05 left.
Clinging to a one-point lead of 59-58, Lee exploded with a huge sequence of eight straight points to push the lead to 67-58 at the 10:51 mark.
The Falcons kept the Warriors at arm's length the rest of the way, but Sterling didn't go quietly and twice made it a one-possession game, with the last time coming on a score by Elias Ngoga that made it 82-79 with 19 seconds left.
But that's as close as the Warriors would come as KJ Spiller and Lee each hit two critical free throws to put the game away for the Falcons.
"I'm proud of our guys for persevering tonight," said Friends men's basketball head coach Phil McClintock. "Sterling did a great job getting us out of rhythm by running a lot of matchup zone. Our guys stepped it up defensively and were able to make enough shots to get the win."
Lee finished with a game-high 27 points, just one off his career-high to spark the Falcons' offensive attack. Spiller scored 17 and Hutton added 14 points. Randy Woolf, Jr. stuffed the stat sheet with six points along with career-best totals of 10 rebounds and seven assists, including six dimes in the decisive second half for Friends (11-4, 7-2 KCAC).
Mooch Austin led five Warriors (9-6, 4-5 KCAC) in double-figure scoring with 20 points. Julian Smith was next with 17 points and Jayden Garrison had a team-high five assists.
The Falcons outrebounded the Warriors by eight overall, 38-30, with an 11-6 edge on the offensive glass.
Friends will continue its three-game homestand vs. No. 24-ranked Oklahoma Wesleyan University Saturday evening (Jan. 11) at 5 pm.
