A sluggish second half dooms the Bears

Wednesday January 26, 2022: Men's Basketball

Eunice, LA

Baton Rouge Bears basketball opened the 2022 conference season tonight in Eunice versus the defending conference champions the LSUE Bengals.  A sluggish second half by the Bears and a high scoring second half by the Bengals propels LSUE to a 70 to 68 conference victory tonight in the HPRE Center

In the first half, the Bears were firing on all cylinders.  They had all facets of their game finally come together to erupt for 42 first half points.  The game was very fast paced between the two ball clubs. The Bears were very activity on the defensive end of the floor limiting the Bengals to 28 points.  The Bears controlled the glass and was very accurate from behind the arc. At the half, the Bears led the Bengals 42 to 28.

Before the second half would begin, the game took a turn. As the Bears and Bengals were preparing to start the second half a fire alarm went off in the HPRE Center and all fans and teams were evacuated from the building while the Eunice fire department checked out the alarm.

Thus, the second half began a bit rocky for the Bears. The Bengals would start the second half on a 28 to 11 run to tie the game at 56 with 7:43 remaining. The Bengals would take a three-point lead 62-59 with 4:56 remaining. JaQualon Lovette would hit a three pointer with 4:31 to tie the game at 62. It was a back-and-forth battle for the final four minutes of the game.  The Bengals would lead 68 to 66 but Jaylon Young would steal the ball and go the length of the floor to dunk the ball and tie the game at 68. The Bengals would hit a jumper with 41.7 seconds to take the 70 to 68 leads.  The Bears would have their chances late to tie the game and send it into overtime but would come up short.  The Bengals would come from behind to take the 70 to 68 conference victory.

The Bears were led in scoring by Reginald Gause with 16 points. The Bengals were led in scoring by Isaiah Payne with 16 points.

With the victory LSUE improves to 9-6, 1-0 while Baton Rouge falls to 6-10,0-1 on the season.

Bears Highlights:

Reginald Gause led all Bears with 16 points

Jayhlon Young added 14 points

JaQualon Lovette scored 13 points

The Bears will return home on Saturday January 29 to continue conference play versus the Southern Shreveport Jags at 4 pm in the Bonne Sante Wellness Center.

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