HONOLULU – The St. Edward's men's basketball team had an opportunity to send the game into overtime, but a SEAN ELKINTON 3-point attempt out of an inbounds play fell wayward in a 62-59 loss to the Emmanuel College Lions.
Facing the nation's second-leading scorer in KJ Jones II, UCHE DIBIAMAKA reminded everyone of his own star talent. The 6-foot-4 Australian guard earned All-LSC First Team honors last year, averaging 18.6 points per game on just shy of 50/40/90 shooting splits.
Hilltoppers head coach Andre Cook tasked Dibiamaka as the first to guard Jones, a 6-foot-6 guard who weds volume and efficiency with his combination of size, shooting, and a repertoire of moves outshined only by how green of a light he's granted.
Dibiamaka used his quickness, strength, and lower center of gravity to keep Jones perpetually off balance in isolation plays. In ball screen actions, the Hilltoppers had freshman big man SEAN ELKINTON blitz Jones, forcing a retreat while simultaneously using his size to prevent the dump-off pass on the short roll.
It was enough to force Jones into two early turnovers while Dibiamaka countered with a 3-pointer and turnaround jumper in the paint for an early 14-10 Hilltopper lead. The bench trio of BENNETT MOHN, BLAKE NIELSEN, and CARSON TUTTLE entered the game and pressed the advantage as they've done all season by supercharging the ball movement.
Mohn found Tuttle for a 3-pointer, then Nielsen hit MASON HIX for a layup, then Tuttle for another score at the rim to cap off a 14-2 run that gave St. Edward's a 21-12 lead with 9:12 remaining in the first half.
Emmanuel clawed back in by finding a foothold on the defensive end. The Lions played solid man-to-man, chest-to-chest defense, preventing the Hilltoppers from puncturing the defense off the bounce. Its off-ball defense was likewise focused with great attention to the details on the scouting report, sitting on many of the Hilltoppers' pet actions.
When St. Edward's was able to turn the corner on drives, it often did so too sped up, missing wild layup attempts off the glass.
Jones got going with his first basket nearly 10 minutes into the second half, using his body to get Mohn back on his heels, then stepping back to create space and hit a contested, long 2-point jumper. After that, he remained quiet until late in the first half, hitting a pair of free throws on a technical foul to bring the Lions within three with a little more than three minutes remaining.
Dibiamaka followed with a steal and fast-break layup to give the Hilltoppers some breathing room. Still, Jones earned another pair of free throws following his own miss, hitting both, and followed with an open 3-pointer to match Dibiamaka with nine first-half points, and both teams tied at 29 in a low-scoring half.
Emmanuel opened the second half giving St. Edward's a taste of its own medicine, executing a backdoor cut to Jones with the delivery from the elbow similar to one of the Hilltoppers' go-to actions. Elkinton followed by finding Hix for a layup and followed a Jeremiah Francis layup with his own to keep the score tied at 33.
The Lions broke the game open with a 14-3 run over the next five minutes, led by Jones' 10 points, while the Hilltoppers shot just 1-for-6 over that time to give Emmanuel its largest lead of 11 with 13:09 remaining.
Jones started his run on an open 3-pointer off a feed from Gibson. A few possessions later, Gibson found Jones for an alley-oop. On the other end, the Hilltoppers slowly moved away from its system, with players trying to take a little more into their own hands. Frustrations mounted, leading to another technical foul and another set of Jones free throws.
That spark was enough to ignite a fire the Hilltopper defense never could quite put out again, surrendering 19 second-half points to Jones, who finished with 28 points on a blistering 8-for-14 from the field and 10-for-11 from the free-throw line.
St. Edward's regained its composure and battled back with a 9-0 run of its own. Nielsen entered the game in the second half and found Elkinton for a layup inside, then Dibiamaka for a fast-break 3-pointer. Nielsen followed with a layup of his own, then Elkinton scored on an offensive rebound to bring the Hilltoppers back within two with 8:54 remaining.
Jones pushed the lead back to double-digits, but St. Edward's again showed its resiliency. Gary drew a foul for a pair of free throws, Dibiamaka hit a short pull-up jumper, and Gary stole the ball and laid it in on the other end to pull within four.
St. Edward's had multiple opportunities to cut the deficit but missed three consecutive shots until Nielsen hit a 3-pointer to bring the Hilltoppers within one at 60-59 in the waning seconds. Jones hit both ensuing free throws to put Emmanuel up three with one second remaining.
The Hilltoppers ran a clever inbound play, setting up an open Elkinton shot, but the jumper missed as a rare blemish on an otherwise stellar performance. The freshman big man scored 14 points on an efficient 7-for-12 shooting and fell one rebound short of a double-double with nine. Dibiamaka also had 14 as the only other Hilltopper in double figures.
St. Edward's shot just 39.3 percent from the field, finishing with more turnovers (18) than assists (11) for the first time this season. The Hilltoppers fall to 10-3 and will return to conference play and a home game against Texas A&M International on Dec. 30.
