Eagles Men Win Tourney Title in Overtime
December 29, 2002

Complete Box Scores
Calumet vs. Lincoln Memorial     AU vs. Wilberforce

The folks at the Ashland AmeriHost never sleep – someone always mans the front desk.

Ashland University head basketball coach Roger Lyons may be wide awake late into the night on Sunday (Dec. 29), too. It will be hard for Lyons to settle down after watching the Eagles win the Sixth Annual AmeriHost Classic at Kates Gymnasium with an 88-80 overtime win over Wilberforce.

Senior forward Justin Larrick scored a career-high 30 points and pulled down 11 rebounds as Ashland (10-1) held off stubborn Wilberforce. AU has won the tournament title every year the event has been held.

Wilberforce (8-7) forced the game into overtime when guard Gene Evans hit a three-pointer from 35 feet away at time expired in regulation. In the overtime session, AU outscored the visitors, 14-6. The Eagles took the lead for good, 78-76 on a layup by sophomore center Mike Campbell with 3:44 remaining in overtime. Campbell led all players in the game with 14 rebounds. Senior guard Isaac Kincaid had 25 points for AU.

Evans had 20 points to lead Wilberforce. Vincent Hamilton had 13 points and seven rebounds.

A total of 52 fouls were whistled in the game. The Eagles hurt themselves by making just 18 of 36 shots from the free throw line. Also, AU senior point guard Angelo Edwards battled foul trouble all night. He fouled out after playing only 13 minutes. Edwards scored four points and needs 13 more points to become the 18th player in school history to reach 1,000 points.

Wilberforce had four players, including three starters, foul out of the game.

AU led at halftime, 45-40. Wilberforce stayed in the game in the first half thanks to some effective long-range shooting. Over the first 20 minutes, the Bulldogs made five of 10 shots from three-point range.

Ashland shot 48.5 percent (32-66) for the game and Wilberforce finished at 36.7 percent (29-79). AU outrebounded the bigger Bulldogs, 53-45. The turnovers were nearly even, 20 for AU, 19 for Wilberforce.

In the consolation game, Lincoln Memorial (8-5) downed Calumet College, 74-48. DeAngelo Johnson had 23 points to pace LMU. Kenan Browder had 19 points for Calumet.