The IU Southeast men’s basketball team blew a halftime lead of four, and lost by 12 against Brescia University on Saturday afternoon, 63-77.

The Grenadiers lose another conference game wit this lose to Brescia.

The Bearcats turned that four point deficit at half, and turned around and outscored IU Southeast 43-25 in the second half.

“We just let this game slip through our hands,” sophomore guard Demetrius Stanton said. “We should have finished that game on top.”

The Bearcats shot 54 percent from the field and held the Grenadiers to just nine made field goals in the final frame.

The first half was a high scoring quarter for Stanton. He finished the first twenty minutes scoring 14 of his 19 points. The Grenadiers had another double double out of freshman forward Robert Sawyer. He finished the game with 11 points and 13 rebounds.

Turnovers seemed to not play a big factor early, but the second half is where it fell apart. Eight of their 11 turnovers came in the second half. This allowed Brescia to outscore the Grenadiers by 18 in the last twenty minutes of this game.

“We gave them too many opportunities,” Head Coach Wile Brown said. “They capitalized on every single one.”

Once the game changed advantages, Brescia never looked back. Brescia outscored the Grenadiers in the paint by ten and had 20 points off the turnovers committed by the Grenadiers.

Trey Howard finished the game with 29 points, 18 of them coming from behind the arc.

Stanton said that the defense just wasn’t there in the second half like it was in the first half.

“Being able to stop teams wins you games,” Stanton said. “We have to do a better job on defense.”

The Grenadiers(5-14) lose another game in the conference, bringing their record to 1-5 in the KIAC. If the season were to end right now, the Grenadiers would be out of the conference tournament, due to the loss to IU Kokomo just three days ago.

“This young team has a lot to work on,” Brown said.

The Grenadiers are back in action on Tuesday, Jan. 19. The last time the Grenadiers played Cincinnati Christian, it was a home game. They lost but only by three points. Stanton is excited to give CCU another game.

“We gave them a game too,” Stanton said. “We owe the ma game.”

The game a road game and it starts at 7:30 p.m.