Saturday, November 23
Bahamas, Nassau
8:00 PM EST
Kansas City
4-3
74
vs
68
East Carolina University
2-4
1
2
F
East Carolina Pirates
26
42
68
Kansas City Roos
42
32
74
Kansas City Advances to Bahamas Championship Game After 74-68 Win
11/23/2019 9:59:00 PM | Men's Basketball
NASSAU, Bahamas -- Kansas City men's basketball (4-3) led wire-to-wire and held on for a 74-68 victory against East Carolina (2-4) tonight in the semifinals at The Islands of the Bahamas Classic. Senior Rob Whitfield nailed 7-of-12 three-pointers to collect a career-high 29 points to lead the way for the Roos.
Kansas City advances to play Liberty at 7 pm CT Sunday in the Classic championship game.
"This is a good win for our team," said head coach Billy Donlon. "Our defense was tremendous in the first half and we will learn to defend without fouling in the second half. Guys shot the ball with confidence and that is important."
Unlike last night when the Roos had a cold start falling behind 19-4 against George Washington, tonight was a much different story. Kansas City jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead. After three ties, with the last being at 10-10, the Roos went to work on both ends.
During a four-minute stretch, Kansas City went on a 14-2 run capped by a trey from Whitfield. The Roos eventually stretched the lead to 16 at 42-26 at the half. As a team, Kansas City shot 53 percent and limited East Carolina to 35 percent. Whitfield already had 19 points in the first half.
In the second half, a pair of free throws by freshman Maks Klanjscek and a lay-up by Whitfield put the Roos up by their largest margin at 23, 53-30, at the 15:51 mark. But the game was not over as the Pirates started to chip away.
Two Tristan Newton free throws ignited a 38-19 East Carolina run over the next 14-plus minutes. Leading by just four points, 72-68, the Kansas City defense forced three-straight misses from three-point range and Whitfield made two free throws to close out the scoring.
The Roos have now won three-straight games for the first time since the 2017-18 season.
Kansas City finished the game shooting 47.5 percent (28-of-59) and 50 percent (8-of-16) from three-point land.
Senior Javan White gathered 18 points and 11 rebounds for his second double-double in his last three games. Freshman Josiah Allick came off the bench to total 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting.
East Carolina was led by B. Suggs with 14 points. Jayden Gardner came away with 13 points and 11 rebounds before fouling out in the second half.
Quick Hitters
Kansas City advances to play Liberty at 7 pm CT Sunday in the Classic championship game.
"This is a good win for our team," said head coach Billy Donlon. "Our defense was tremendous in the first half and we will learn to defend without fouling in the second half. Guys shot the ball with confidence and that is important."
Unlike last night when the Roos had a cold start falling behind 19-4 against George Washington, tonight was a much different story. Kansas City jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead. After three ties, with the last being at 10-10, the Roos went to work on both ends.
During a four-minute stretch, Kansas City went on a 14-2 run capped by a trey from Whitfield. The Roos eventually stretched the lead to 16 at 42-26 at the half. As a team, Kansas City shot 53 percent and limited East Carolina to 35 percent. Whitfield already had 19 points in the first half.
In the second half, a pair of free throws by freshman Maks Klanjscek and a lay-up by Whitfield put the Roos up by their largest margin at 23, 53-30, at the 15:51 mark. But the game was not over as the Pirates started to chip away.
Two Tristan Newton free throws ignited a 38-19 East Carolina run over the next 14-plus minutes. Leading by just four points, 72-68, the Kansas City defense forced three-straight misses from three-point range and Whitfield made two free throws to close out the scoring.
The Roos have now won three-straight games for the first time since the 2017-18 season.
Kansas City finished the game shooting 47.5 percent (28-of-59) and 50 percent (8-of-16) from three-point land.
Senior Javan White gathered 18 points and 11 rebounds for his second double-double in his last three games. Freshman Josiah Allick came off the bench to total 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting.
East Carolina was led by B. Suggs with 14 points. Jayden Gardner came away with 13 points and 11 rebounds before fouling out in the second half.
Quick Hitters
- The seven three-pointer's made by Rob Whitfield is the most for a Roo since he connected for seven on Dec. 1, 2018 at Purdue Fort Wayne
- The bench was vital tonight as four players saw at least 17 minutes of court time. Overall, Kansas City had 22 bench points led by the 10 from the hand of Josiah Allick
- Kansas City held East Carolina to 29.6 percent shooting tonight, the lowest of any Division I opponent this year
Team Stats
ECU
KC
FG%
.296
.475
3FG%
.211
.500
FT%
.914
.588
RB
37
36
TO
9
14
STL
5
6
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
29
FGM
10
3FGM
7
FTM
2
Pts
18
FGM
8
3FGM
0
FTM
2
Pts
10
FGM
4
3FGM
1
FTM
1
Pts
9
FGM
4
3FGM
0
FTM
1
Players Mentioned
F
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's BasketballF
/ Men's BasketballG
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