Ohio Valley Times

Golden Bears beat Alice Lloyd for fourth straight win

There was a time when things were not going well for WVU Tech.

In a bit of a transitional year, with a new head coach and a handful of new players, injuries compounded the Golden Bears' attempt to find continuity.

"Not making excuses, but when you have injuries and you have different people in the lineups, you have to try to find that group," said first-year head coach George Wilmore, who spent three seasons as an assistant to James Long.

The Golden Bears have apparently done so, and it showed Monday night.

Wilmore liked what he saw, several players contributing in a 96-75 win over Alice Lloyd that sent his team into Christmas break on the most positive of notes.

The win was the Golden Bears' fourth straight, negating a four-game losing streak that could have sent them reeling. After losses to Jamestown — one of the nation's top offensive teams that Tech held to 73 points — and Ave Maria, the Golden Bears addressed the situation.

"We just told each other we have to trust, and it's going to take a while," Wilmore said. "New coach, new system — kind of the same system but new people in different roles. It took a while for people to trust and we finally got it going at Washington Adventist (an 81-74 win). Hopefully we don't look back."

Tech looked the part of a team against Alice Lloyd:

l Ashton Parker scored 16 of his 18 points in the first half and the Golden Bears (8-6, 3-2 River States Conference) needed them all. A 10-0 run put them ahead 36-26 with 4:06 left in the half, but the Eagles came back and were able to tie at 39-39 with 1:08 on the clock.

l Bryce Radford, who had a game-tying 3-pointer early and another as part of the 10-0 run, hit a pair of free throws to put Tech back on top 41-39 with :31.6 to play. He then played tight defense on Koji Anderson with the Eagles playing for the last shot of the half and forced a bad pass out of bounds to preserve Tech's lead.

l Andrew Work took control in a second half that was dominated by Tech. He scored 17 of his game-high 23 points after the break. He picked up his third foul at the 17:21 mark but Wilmore left him in, and Work immediately went to the rim for a layup that could have resulted in a charge being called, but instead Alice Lloyd's Damon Tobler was called for a blocking foul. Work hit the free throw to complete the three-point play, and Will Hill followed with two free throws as Tech opened with an 11-1 run to begin the pullaway.

"We just continued to move the ball, create closeouts and limit them to one shot," Wilmore said. "Limit them to one shot and box out. They are one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the country. ... We only gave up two offensive rebounds (each) to Tobler and (Will) Philpot."

Tech won the rebound battle 38-29, paced by Parker's 10.

The rest of the second half saw Tech continue to separate. Keondré King hit a deep 3, Brant Smithers hit a wide open baseline 3 after the Golden Bears perfectly broke the press, then he and King hit on back-to-back possessions to make it an 85-64 game with 6:57 to play.

Tech's largest lead was 26, 95-69, on a shot off the glass by Saliou Diop with 3:04 left.

Tech gained a key advantage when Philpot picked up his second foul 5:15 into the first half. He later fouled out with seven points and three rebounds in 15 minutes.

Tobler had 12 points, five boards and four assists for Alice Lloyd (7-7, 2-3).

Smithers had 16 points and six rebounds for Tech. Radford, a 2019 Woodrow Wilson graduate playing his first season at Tech, had 12 points and five assists. King dished out six assists.

The Golden Bears will take a week off for Christmas before returning home Dec. 26 to prepare for a Dec. 30 game at Life.

Email: gfauber@register-herald.com; follow on Twitter @gfauber5

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