The men’s basketball team cruised to a 79-59 win against Berea on Feb. 1 to move to 7-1 in conference play.

The Grenadiers opened up with an early lead thanks to five quick points by Jazzmarr Ferguson, senior guard.

They would only extend the lead from there to take a 36-20 lead to the halftime break.

Ferguson had a game high of 25 points and added eight rebounds to his total.

Rick Bodiford, senior guard, had a double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds.

IU Southeast’s Brice Mitchell, sophomore guard, was the other Grenadier scorer in double figures with 15 points.

Berea had three scorers of their own in double figures.  Josh Clark, junior forward, had a team high 18 points, Rudy Evans, senior guard, had 15 points and Kevin Burrus, senior guard, had 10 points.

Berea head coach John Hemenway said he  was disappointed with his team’s effort in the ballgame.

“We didn’t compete,” Hemenway said. “We didn’t come to play tonight. “Southeast has a good team.  I’m not taking anything away from them.  They’re one of the better teams in the country and obviously one of the top teams in this league, but we didn’t compete.”

Hemenway also said he blamed himself for the team not being ready for the game.

“A rivalry game like this, I thought our guys would come and give it everything that we had,” Hemenway said. “It’s my fault. It’ll be addressed tomorrow.”

IUS head coach Wiley Brown said he was very pleased overall with IU Southeast’s performance and even said he would give them an “A” for a grade.

“We played really good defense, our shots just didn’t go down that we normally hit,” Brown said. “I think we held Berea to like 31 percent field-goal shooting, and that’s good when you can hold teams like that, that shoot the ball really well.”

Berea had 15 offensive rebounds in the game, which was the biggest concern for Brown after the game.

“We are always going to be small, but rebounding, to me, you have to go in there hard.  You just have to go in there and get them,” Brown said. “You have to play the game with desire, and rebounding is all about that.

“I’m a little disappointed in the rebounding, but our defense held on once they got those second shots,” Brown said.

Both Brown and Bodiford talked after the game about their goals for the rest of this season.

“The main goal is to win conference because, this year, the conference tournament is held at the No. 1 seed’s home court, and this being my senior year, I definitely want to end on a bang,” Bodiford said.  “I want to cut those nets down at IUS.”

Brown said to win conference the team needs to play better from inside to out.

“We play the game inside out,” Brown said.

“I was a little disappointed in that. Guys were beating their men, the defense was stepping in, and they wouldn’t kick the ball out. They were trying to make interior passes. We have to learn from that.”

Brown also said the communication isn’t quite where it needs to be if they want to win the conference.

“Communication is another key,” Brown said. “I think we did pretty well with it tonight, but we have to become excellent with it.  If we want to get our goals and win this conference and go back to nationals again, we have to communicate.”

The Grenadiers continue their quest for the conference’s No. 1 seed on Feb. 15 at Brescia.

By BRENT KULWICKI

Staff

bkulwick@ius.edu