Franklin Springs, GA – The Emmanuel Men's Basketball team hosted King University tonight in conference action. The Lions jumped out to an early lead, taking a 40-31 lead into the break. The Lions continued to control the pace of the game in the second half behind a 26 points night from
Ezra McKee to give the Lions the 91-75 win. With the win, the Lions improve to 13-12 on the season, 10-7 in conference action. With the win, Head Coach
TJ Rosene picks up his 500
th career win as the head coach of the Lions. Congratulations, Coach!
The Tornado took an early 5-0 lead, but
Ezra McKee scored the Lions first 12 points to make it 12-9, Lions with 13:46 to play in the first half. Buckets from
Devin Story,
Sam Thacker and
Massimo Moretti put the Lions up 19-16 with 10:26 to play, but the Tornado tied things up at 19-19 with 9:16 to play. The two teams traded points and the lead, with
Isaac Jones and
Brady Peery getting in on the action for Emmanuel. Back-to-back three-pointers from Jones and Thacker and dunks from Story put the Lions up by nine, 35-26 with 2:33 to play in the first. The Lions closed out the half strong to take a 40-31 lead into the break. In the first, the Lions shot 47% from the field, connecting on 5-8 from the charity stripe.
The second half the Tornado cut the Lions lead to seven, 44-37 but the Lions answered with a three-pointer from
Isaac Jones and a pull up from
Sam Thacker to make it 52-39, Lions with 16:11 to play. The Tornado cut the Lions lead to nine with 10:27 to play, 62-53 but six quick points from McKee put the Lions up 69-53 with 8:45 to play. In the final five minutes, the Lions closed the game out strong with Jones connecting from three twice in the final minutes of play to make the final score 91-75 Lions. In the second, the Lions shot 55% from the field, connecting on 54% from beyond the arc.
Three Lions finished the game with 20 or more points.
Ezra McKee led the way with 26 points, 12 rebounds while
Devin Story added 22 points, 7 assists and 5 rebounds.
Isaac Jones finished the night with 20 points, connecting on 6 three-pointers to lead the team.
Next up, the Lions will travel to Belmont, NC to face Belmont Abbey College on Wednesday at 7PM.
For more information on Emmanuel University athletics, visit goeulions.com.
