WKU Basketball: Tops Finish Paradise Jam with 69–64 Win Over Fordham
Camron Justice would score a career-high 23 points and WKU would survive a sluggish second half to beat the Fordham Rams 69–64 to finish…
Camron Justice would score a career-high 23 points and WKU would survive a sluggish second half to beat the Fordham Rams 69–64 to finish in fourth place at the Paradise Jam.
The game started off sluggish as the Rams slow & deliberate style dictated the tempo and they jumped out to a 5–0 lead in the first three minutes before Charles Bassey would get the Tops in the scoring column. The game would hang around 7 points until Cam Justice hit a three to take a 10–7 lead around the 13-minute mark.
The Hilltoppers would build on that for a 14–0 run over 7:38 minutes opening up a 19–7 lead as Cam Justice continued to pour it on scoring 15 first-half points. WKU would take their foot off the gas and the Rams would creep back into the game cutting it to two around the five-minute mark.
From there WKU would dictate the pace and break the game open as they would end the half on a 16–3 run sending it to the locker room up 37–22.
The pace would pick up in the second half and the margin would vacillate between fifteen and eight as the Rams would pick up their offensive pace and WKU would go cold as they repeatedly settled for jump shots. That could streak would continue as the Rams would cut the lead down to five around the ten-minute mark.
WKU would repeately get the margin back up to ten but the Rams would hang around repeatedly getting to the 7–8 range. WKU would extend the lead to 12 after a Bassey and one and a Josh Anderson Slam at the 4:57 mark but the Rams wouldn’t make it easy on the Hilltoppers.
Fordham would keep hitting shots and would cut it three with one minute remaining. WKU’s offense would stagnate again but Camron Justice came up with a huge offensive rebound to give WKU the ball with 20 seconds remaining clinging to that 3 point lead.
WKU would endbound into the backcourt and run off 9 seconds before Justice drew a foul. He would hit both free throws and WKU would survive with a 69–64 victory moving them to 6–1 on the season, their best start since 2004–05.
Here are some thoughts on today’s win:
It was good seeing the team take care of business after Friday night’s missed opportunity against a good Bowling Green team. Winning convincingly against inferior opponents minimizes the damage of the tournament. Eliminating the bad loss is crucial for this team with plenty of opportunities left for signature wins.
WKU attempted 21 Three-Pointers shooting 38.1% on the night (eight makes). I felt they fell too in love with the three instead of going inside to Bassey & Williams.
Turnovers continued to be a problem today. The 17–8 turnover margin definitely helped the Rams overcome WKU free throw advantage (20–7)
Camron Justice was great today. After his horrid shooting performance against BGSU he rebounded with performances of 19 points & 23 points (7–12 shooting today, 6–8 from 3). He’s lived up to his shooter role that he was brought in to do.
Jordan Rawls had a solid decent game (4 points, 4 assists and 2 rebounds) but wasn’t as effective in the second half. Stansbury is still learning to trust him down the stretch.
Charles Bassey was his normal dominant self against the undersized Rams scoring 24 and rebounding 12 making all 10 of his free throw attempts. The only time WKU consistently scored in the second half was when they gave the ball to him.
Taveion Hollingsworth’s role on this team is still a mystery. He struggled again at times as a point guard and never really got going (3 points). I really think that Stansbury needs to play the hot hand between him, Justice and Savage every game.
Josh Anderson is another victim of the limited playing time that occurs when Savage and Justice play at the same time. Josh’s athleticism is head and shoulders above each of them and when he gets in the lane watch out (as shown on dunk above). Stansbury needs to utilize Anderson more in his lineup combinations
Carson Williams looked tired today. As a high motor player he just wasn’t his normal self going scoreless, garnering only 3 rebounds and commiting 5 turnovers. Hopefully some rest will get him back to his old self in December.
Matt Horton spelled Bassey a few times and had another solid performance finishing with 2 rebounds and two points
FloHoops was fine today. The picture was good and there weren’t any issues. Having to pay the $30 is steep if we have to play again on the platform in the future, I’d recommend splitting the costs with some friends. It allows you to have 4 different people watch the stream. That makes it a much more manageable $7.50 per person to watch three WKU games and the other games in the tournament as well.
WKU returns to action on Black Friday against the #2 Ranked Louisville (6–0) at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. The 4 Central time tipoff is a golden opportunity for WKU to get a signature win (similar to 2008 game in Nashville) against a likely top 8 seed. Louisville looked vulnerable during their 82–76 win against Akron last night. If WKU fires on all cylinders that game is very much winnable.
Here are your final statistics from today’s victory
