DALTON, Ga. – UPIKE men’s basketball’s struggles in the Peach State continued on Saturday with an 88-81 loss to Faulkner.
The Eagles got out to a 13-0 lead which spelled a bit of doom early for the Bears. However, Jayvian Delacruz took matters into his own hands for the most part with eight points in a 10-2 run to cut that lead early.
Delacruz scored a game-high 29 points with six rebounds to pace the Bears. Three other players – Jazz Parker (15), Luke Layhew (13), and Chase Parsley (12) – scored in double figures.
But Faulkner kept hitting bucket after bucket to keep building its lead back up. The Eagles nearly had three players score 20 points, led by Rene Scott’s team-high 25 points with Milan Skundric and C.J. Jones’ 19 points each.
Overall, Faulkner shot 48.5 percent in the first half to UPIKE’s 36 percent to take a 12-point into halftime.
UPIKE men’s basketball suffers first
defeat of season to No. 15 Dalton State
DALTON, Ga. – The perfect start to UPIKE’s season came to a close on Friday when the Bears lost to the hands of No. 15 Dalton State on the road, 84-73.
Friday’s contest lacked to usual quick pace and flow that UPIKE (5-1) tries to operate at, especially in the second half as evidenced by the 18 fouls in the final 20 minutes. Those fouls resulted in 27 free throws for the Roadrunners, which played a key role in the difference in the game.
Arguably UPIKE’s two most effective players so far this season – Jayvian Delacruz and Xaviar Gaona – both fouled out and Chase Parsley and Jazz Parker each ended up with four fouls.
After the two teams felt each other out in the first seven minutes, Dalton State (2-1) used a 10-0 run to take a big 11-point lead early. Pikeville would claw back a bit and the Roadrunners’ lead would hover around six points for the rest of the half.
The Bears would take the lead halfway through the second half thanks to a scoring burst from Jovontae Carleton, who was one of three UPIKE players to reach double figures with 12 points, the others being Delacruz and Da’Rell Domineck at 15 and 13, respectively.
UP NEXT
UPIKE will have over a week to recover from the weekend before facing Ohio-Chillicothe for a second time on Nov. 18 at 3 p.m. at the East Kentucky Expo Center.
At Dalton Ga.
(MSC/SSAC Challenge)
SCORE BY HALVES:
UP (6-2)………….35 46 – 81
FU (4-0)…………..47 41 – 88
Scoring:
UPIKE (81) – Jayvian Delacruz 8(3) 4-6 29; Chase Parsley 1(2) 4-6 12; Jovontae Carleton 1(1) 0-0 5; Da’Rell Domineck 1 1-3 3; Jazz Parker 5 5-6 15; Luke Layhew 4 5-8 13; Damon Tobler 1 0-0 2; and Stanley Perrin 1 0-1 2. Totals: 22(6) 19-30 81.
Faulkner University (88) – Rene Scott 5(2) 9-12 25; Milan Skundric 4(3) 2-3 19; C.J. Jones 5(3) 0-0 19; Sean Edwards 2 5-6 9; Adnan Halilovic 1 0-0 2; Garrett Sanderson 0(1) 5-7 8; and Luka Dmitrovic 2 2-4 6. Totals: 19(9) 23-32 88.
At Dalton, Ga.
(MSC/SSAC Challenge)
SCORE BY HALVES:
UP (6-1)…………….33 40 – 73
DSC (2-1)………..…39 45 – 84
Scoring:
UPIKE (73) – Jayvian Delacruz 5(1) 2-2 15; Da’Rell Domineck 5 3-6 13; Xaviar Gaona 2(1) 1-2 8; Luke Layhew 3 1-2 7; Chase Parsley 1 0-0 2; Jovontae Carleton 1(2) 4-6 12; Stanley Perrin 2(1) 2-3 9; and Jazz Parker 1 5-6 7. Totals: 20(5) 18-27 73.
Dalton State College (84) – Sean Cranney 1(1) 12-12 17; Elijah Staley 6 5-8 17; D’Anfernee Pugh 4 3-4 11; Sean Chislom 3 4-8 10; Kingston Frazier 2 0-0 4; Randy Bell 3(2) 0-0 12; Ty Pendley 1 5-6 7; and Aaron Burress 3 0-0 6. Totals: 23(3) 29-38 84.
(Source: UPIKE Sports Information Office)