Box Score Box Score
THE RUNDOWN
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – St. Edward's never trailed in a 91-78 victory over Colorado Christian Saturday night at Colorado Mesa's Brownson Arena. The Hilltoppers built a 10-opint lead with 12 minutes left in the first half, led by as many as 26, and CCU (0-2) never trimmed the lead to single digits as the Hilltoppers coasted to 2-0 on the season.
Landon Goesling, who hadn't scored more than 15 points in his career coming into the season, followed his career-high 25 points Friday vs. Colorado Mesa with a new career-high, 26, Saturday against the Cougars. The junior guard was 8-of-12 from the floor, 3-of-5 from beyond the arc, and 7-for-7 from the charity stripe while adding three assists and committing no turnovers in the win.
A balanced scoring effort saw freshman Sean Phillips score 17 points, thanks to five 3-point field goals, Dorian Lopez scored a dozen and freshman Corey Shervill had 10 off the bench. The Hilltoppers shot 48.3 percent from the floor as a team, hit 13-of-28 shots from long range and made the most of its chances at the free-throw line, knocking down 22-of-27 free shots.
The Hilltoppers' defensive effort in the first half limited the Cougars to just a .375 shooting effort resulting in a 43-25 halftime advantage. CCU outscored SEU 53-48 in the second half on 54.1 percent shooting, but couldn't dig out of its first-half hole.
As was the case in Friday's win, St. Edward's made the most of its opponents' turnovers. The Hilltoppers scored 27 points off 16 CCU turnovers a night after scoring 19 off Colorado Mesa's miscues.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Landon Goesling followed Friday's career high (25) by bettering that mark by one point, leading all scorers with 26 points vs. the Cougars Saturday.
• Goesling has 10 career games with double-digit points and two in 2017-18.
• Freshmen Sean Phillips and Corey Shervill continued to impress early in the season putting together back-to-back double-digit scoring efforts. Phillips had 17 on 6-of-8 shooting and Shervill had 10 in just 14 minutes off the bench.
• Dorian Lopez complimented his 12 points by leading SEU with six rebounds; Lopez at 6-5 also showed flor vision with four assists and no turnovers.
• Sean Watkins was one assist shy of his career-high with seven vs. the Cougars, had just one turnover and tallied a game-high three steals.
• St. Edward's has now started a season 2-0, 30 times in the program's history and seven times in the Andre Cook era
• St. Edward's is 3-1 all-time vs. Colorado Christian and 1-1 on neutral floor.
• SEU is 7-1 in the RMAC / Heartland Conference challenge that began in 2014 and includes CCU, CMU and Dallas Baptist. The Hilltoppers' only loss came to CCU in overtime last year in the season opener (L, 93-91, 11/11/16).
STAT OF THE GAME I
17 – Sean Phillips' 17 points is the most by an SEU freshman since teammate James Taylor scored 20 his rookie campaign at UTPB, Jan. 7, 2016.
THEY SAID IT
SEU Head Coach Andre Cook on the Hilltoppers' 2-0 start …
"I'm thrilled to be 2-0. What I'm not thrilled with, is how we played the last 16 minutes. We lacked maturity and discipline. That type of play is not conducive to any type of future success. However, we have a lot of young guys and they are smart. They will learn. Definitely happy to come back to Texas 2-0."
WHAT'S NEXT
SEU opens its home schedule Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at the Recreation and Convocation Center (RCC) in Austin vs. NCAA Division III Southwestern University.
