Trevin Lieck
With several key players out Tuesday, IU Columbus had to go deep into its bench for its River States Conference men’s basketball opener against Oakland City.
The Oaks took control midway through the first half and went on to hand the Crimson Pride an 84-64 defeat.
“We’re missing a lot of key pieces,” IUC coach James Adams said. “We just have to get better as we move forward. We have guys coming in at semester. We’re missing some guys now, but we’ll be better.”
The Crimson Pride (2-9, 0-1) were tied with Oakland City (3-5, 1-0) at 11-11 with 10 1/2 minutes left in the first half when the Oaks went on a 17-2 run. After Oakland City built the lead to 23 points early in the second half, IUC came back to within 11 with just over five minutes remaining, but the Oaks ran off the next 13 points to put it away.
“We just turned it over too many times,” Adams said. “It’s tough. Turnovers are a killer, and we just have to do better taking care of the ball, especially in moments where we’re trying to dig ourselves out of a hole.”
The Crimson Pride committed 15 turnovers and were outrebounded 39-32.
“We just didn’t do well rebounding and turned it over,” Adams said. “There’s a lot of fight in my guys, and I really do like the fact that we made some adjustments, and they continued to fight. That’s all we can do right now, is just keep working and getting better.”
Trevin Lieck recorded 17 points and 10 rebounds, and Damontae Thompson had 17 points, seven assists and three steals to lead IUC. Jayden Broadnax scored 13 points, and Kyan Reichhoff added 10 points.
The Crimson Pride will visit Saint Francis Dec. 16 and Lourdes Dec. 30 before returning home to play Saint Mary-of-the-Woods Jan. 3.
