The IUS men’s basketball team lost their home opener 80-76 on Tuesday, Oct. 27. Four Grenadiers scored in double figures, but it wasn’t enough to overcome St. Catharine College.

“It was a game we shouldn’t have lost,” head coach Wiley Brown said.

The Grenadiers trailed by as many as 18 points in the first half. They cut the lead to two with 13:28 left to play in the game.

St. Catharine responded with a 17-6 run of their own to extend the lead back to 13.

The Grenadiers did not go quietly though. Lead by Jordan Coleman, sophomore guard, the Grenadiers marched right back after Coleman hit two clutch 3-pointers to cut the lead to two.

The Grenadiers wouldn’t get any closer, losing by four points.

“We played hard tonight,” Coleman said. “It just wasn’t good enough.”

Coleman finished the game with 12 points and seven rebounds.

The leading scorer for the Grenadiers was Demetrius Stanton, sophomore guard, who missed all of last year with a knee injury.

Stanton had a career-high 25 points for the Grenadiers.

A bright spot for the Grenadiers was their bench, which outscored the Patriots 20-7.

Myles Harvey, freshman guard, also helped lead the comeback off the bench scoring 10 of his 13 points in the second half.

Brown said that Harvey gave the Grenadiers a much needed spark off the bench.

Playing a smaller sized lineup seemed to be the key in this game. Both teams’ centers were in foul trouble for the majority of the game.

The only senior on the team, forward Jordan Thompson, played only 17 minutes but grabbed seven boards.

St. Catharine’s Emory Bennett, senior center, being in foul trouble caused the Patriot to go small, which resulted in the Grenadiers countering with a small rotation of their own.

“One thing I like about playing small is that it speeds the game up,” Brown said. “We are able to spread the floor.”

Brown said that something the Grenadiers didn’t do well was protect the ball.

The Grenadiers had 20 turnovers, most of them coming in crunch time. During the Grenadier’s first game of the season against Harris-Stowe State University, they also had issues with turnovers. They turned the ball over 22 times in that game with Harris-Stowe scoring 28 points off those turnovers.

The Patriots also shot more free throws, edging the Grenadiers by 11. They capitalized on those trips to the line by sinking 27 of 35 free throws. The Grenadiers only shot 15 of 24 shots from the free throw line..

This loss makes the Grenadiers 0-2 on the year. This is the first season since the 2008 season that the Grenadiers have lost their first two games of the season.

The Grenadiers will have a long road schedule in the next couple of weeks. They visit the University of the Cumberlands on Tuesday, Nov. 3.

After that they travel to the Kentucky Christian Classic that following weekend, playing Lindenwood University and Point University. The last road game of that streak is at Georgetown College.

Brown said that the reason they play these tough teams earlier in the season is to get his team ready for the conference games.

“If you play a tough schedule right away, then you will know how you should play through the whole season,” Brown said. “We have to play tougher like our competition.”

The next home game for the Grenadiers isn’t until Saturday, Nov. 28 against Miami-Middletown.