November 6, 2018

No. 5 Eagles dump Mount Mercy JV

Wednesday, 07 November 2018 06:22 Jim Ecker MSR -

After playing their first weekend of games on the road, the Kirkwood men's basketball coaching staff and the Eagles were excited to be able to host their home opener last night versus Mount Mercy junior varsity. However, Bryan Petersen spent a lot of time shaking his head in disappointment during the first half Tuesday night, so don't be fooled by Kirkwood's 101-54 victory over the MMU JV at Johnson Hall.

The fifth-ranked Eagles sputtered to a 42-30 lead at intermission before getting untracked in the second half.

"The first half obviously wasn't very good," said Petersen, in his sixth year as Kirkwood's head coach. "Obviously these type of games (against JV opponents) are hard to play in sometimes, but it was the home opener.

"I was kind of hoping that we'd come out with a little more urgency from the beginning, which was kind of disappointing."

The Eagles (2-1) have four new starters in the lineup to team with returning All-American Doug Wilson, so Petersen knows it will take time as he tries to mold the team.

"The second half obviously was better," he said. "I thought some guys came in and sparked us a little bit and brought some energy. But it was disappointing that we didn't have better energy in the first 20 minutes.

"We just didn't have a lot of direction out there," he said. "I want to see some guys on our team take the next step when it comes to leadership on the court. Corral guys and kind of get things figured out.

"But the biggest thing is we weren't playing hard enough. That's obviously a staple for us, and we weren't playing hard enough."

Wilson led Kirkwood with 17 points and nine rebounds. Luke Appel, a 6-foot-7 freshman from Marshalltown, also scored 17 points. Allante Pickens, a 5-8 soph who transferred to Kirkwood from Missouri Science and Technology, scored 13 points as the starting point guard.

Kyle Arrington, rebounding from preseason knee surgery, contributed 12 points and 10 rebounds off the bench. Traivon Washington, who appeared in three games last year and was red-shirted, contributed 10 points.

Tyler Kelley led Mount Mercy with 17 points. Umut Akkepenek scored 11 points for the Mustangs.

MOUNT MERCY (54): Kelley 4 9-11 17, Loggins 1 0-0 3, Johnson 1 0-0 2, Doe 2 2-3 7, Deng 0 0-0 0, Perks 1 0-0 2, Stoeffler 1 6-7 8, Ehlen 2 0-0 4, Ruff 0 0-0 0, Blick 0 0-0 0, Laird 0 0-0 0, Akkepenek 3 2-2 11. Totals 15 19-23 54.

KIRKWOOD (101): Sims 3 0-0 6, Pickens 5 1-2 13, Kasperbauer 2 2-2 8, Wilson 6 5-10 17, Appel 6 4-4 17, Washington 5 0-0 10, Dee 2 2-2 7, Thedford 2 0-0 4, Clark 1 0-0 2, Biernacki 2 0-0 5, Gosnell 0 0-0 0, Arrington 5 2-3 12. Totals 39 16-23 101.

Halftime - Kirkwood 42, Mount Mercy 30. 3-point goals - Mount Mercy 5 (Akkepenek 3, Loggins 1, Doe 1), Kirkwood 7 (Pickens 2, Kasperbauer 2, Appel 1, Dee 1, Biernacki 1).