Near record free throw shooting night helps Mustangs down Trojans
CBC Athletics
Erik Holth, Sports Information Director
HANNIBAL, Mo. – Looking to keep momentum going from Tuesday night’s dominating win over Crowley’s Ridge, Central Baptist College opened American Midwest Conference play tonight with a trip to Hannibal-LaGrange. CBC (3-0, 1-0) barely missed tying a school record by making 31 free throws and leading all the way in an 88-78 win over HLGU (0-4, 0-1 AMC), their sixth win in seven meetings with the Trojans.
The Mustangs’ 31 made free throws is the second most all time, just one off the school record of 32, which has been done three times, the last occurrence coming in Feb. of 2017, against HLGU. Victor Dukes (SR/Jonesboro, Ark.) posted his 11th career double-double for CBC, leading the way with 24 points and 11 rebounds off the bench, including a career-best 8-8 at the free throw line. Percell Washington(SR/Chicago, Ill.) barely missed his second double-double of the season, finishing with 20 and nine, while Tyrone Alston (JR/Caruthersville, Mo.) had 11 points and Ruston Hayward (SR/Houston, Texas) had 10 in his season debut. CBC shot 79 percent at the free throw line while also shooting 47 percent from the floor, holding Hannibal to 41 percent shooting and outrebounding the Trojans 40-31.
Washington opened the scoring 44 seconds into the game with a layup to make it 2-0 and Jalin Adams’ less than a minute after that gave CBC a 5-0 lead. From there, it was all Mustangs, as they led 38-32 at the half. Hannibal-LaGrange opened the second half on a 5-2 run the first 1:46 of the second half to cut the lead to two, but that’s as close as they would get as CBC would then go on a 12-2 run over the next 2:15 to put the game out of reach, with Washington, Dukes and Hayward providing all the offense during the run. The game never got closer than six after that and the Mustangs cruised to the final margin of 88-78.
Next up for CBC is their biggest test of the season so far, when they travel to Plainview, Texas to take on the number 20 team in the NAIA, the Pioneers of Wayland Baptist, who made the Elite Eight in the National Tournament last year. Tip for the game is scheduled for 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 21.