Loyola Marymount came back from a 13-point deficit to take a 76-70 win over Marist Saturday as in the second day of action in the Paradise Jam Basketball Tournament Paradise at the University of the Virgin Islands Sports and Fitness Center.
In Saturday’s second matchup, Vanderbilt beat Morgan State, 75-66. In late Friday action. Providence beat Vanderbilt 67-60, and LaSalle topped Morgan State by a 78-59 score.
The morning’s action started with the loser’s bracket, and Marist’s Red Foxes, coming off a blowout loss to Maryland the day before, jumped on the Lions early. When Chavaughn Lewis hit a three-pointer with less than 12 minutes left in the first half, the Lions found themselves down by 13, 20-7.
From that point, Loyola Marymount went on a 15-2 run before the break, and when Ayodeji Egbeyemi got a layup with just about five minutes left in the first half, the score was knotted at 22. The lead went back and forth another four times before Phillip Lawrence hit a three-pointer to put Marist up four with 31 seconds left in the half.
But Evan Payne of Loyola Marymount hit a three pointer as time expired and Marist, after holding a double digit lead in the first half, led by a single point going into the break.
In the second half, the Lions picked up the pace and when guard Anthony Ireland made the free throw after being fouled on a layup, the Lions took a 41-40 lead – a lead that they did not give up for the rest of the game.
Loyola Marymount went on to the 76-70 win. For the Lions, Anthony had his second 20-point game of the tournament with 25 points, to go with six assists, while teammates Gabe Levin and Ben Dickinson both scored 11.
For Marist, Lewis finished with 19 points, while Jay Bowie had 16 points, seven rebounds.
Vanderbilt Outruns Morgan State, 75-66
In the second game of Saturday’s losers’ bracket, Vanderbilt’s Commodores went up against another winless team in Morgan State.
This was a fast paced game, and by the eight minute mark, Kyle Fuller’s layup gave Vanderbilt a five-point lead, 22-17. From that point, the Commodores rattled off eight straight points and after another Fuller layup, the Bears were down 13, 30-17.
Vanderbilt tacked on one more to that margin, taking a 37-23 lead into half.
Rod Odom’s three-pointer to begin the second half gave Vandy its biggest lead of the game, 17, but from that point, Morgan State started to slowly chip away at the deficit: with about a minute left in the game, Justin Black set up teammate Ian Chiles with a dunk and the Bears found themselves down five.
Morgan State fouled down the stretch, but free throws from Fuller iced the game and Vanderbilt held on for the 77-66 win.
Fuller led his team with 16 points, followed Damien Jones with 13. For Morgan State, Black led all scores with 18 and five assists, while Chiles finished with 15 points and nine rebounds.
Providence 67, Vanderbilt 60
On Friday, game three of the Paradise Jam Tournament’s opening day matchups pitted the Providence Friars against the Vanderbilt Commodores. This was the only game Friday in which two teams with winning records faced off – Providence coming in with a 4-0 record, and Vanderbilt with 2-1.
The game was nip and tuck early, with the lead changing five times within the first six minutes. But shortly after, Vanderbilt’s Rod Odom hit the second of two free throws that gave the Commodores a 12-11 lead – a lead they maintained for the rest of the first half.
The Commodores’ Eric McClellan’s layup pushed the lead out to seven, but Providence’s Kris Dunn answered with back-to-back buckets that cut the lead to three. An Odom three, followed by a Josh Henderson jumper off of an assist from McClellan pushed it back to eight, then with just under two minutes to go, another Odom free throw gave the Commodores a 31-22 lead – their largest margin in the first half.
Providence got a jumper from Josh Fortune, and with seconds left, two free throws from Kadeem Batts that cut the deficit to five at half, 31-26.
To start the second half, Vanderbilt came out looking to put the nail in the coffin. McClellan’s jump shot with about 16 minutes left to go in the game pushed the lead back to eight, and a few possessions later, Odom got three more of his game high 17 points, making the score now 48-38.
The action seesawed until Henderson’s block and rebound led to a Kyle Fuller layup that widened the margin to 16, 56-40. But over the next seven minutes (from the 10:41 mark) the Friars went on a 17-0 run, capped off by Bryce Cotton’s jumper to give the Friars a 57-56 lead.
Odom responded with a three, putting Vanderbilt back up by two, but another 8-0 run by Providence – culminating with Ladontae Henton’s tip-in with 24 seconds left – gave the Friars a 65-59 lead, and allowed the team to go on to the 67-60 win.
Providence was led by Tyler Harris, who had 15 points, and Cotton with 14. Behind Odom for Vanderbilt was McClellan, who had 13 points and six assists.
LaSalle Beats Morgan State, 78-59
In Friday night’s final game, the Morgan State Bears took on the LaSalle Explorers.
Morgan State had a heavy following in the stands of the University of the Virgin Islands Sports and Fitness Center due to a large number of local graduates.
Action in the first half was back and forth, but at about the nine-minute mark, Morgan State’s Blake Bozeman hit a three-pointer, giving the Bears a 17-15 lead. A jumper by LaSalle’s Tyrone Garland’s tied the score back up at 17, but the Bear’s Ian Chiles hit a jumper with about five minutes to go in the first half, giving Morgan State a six-point lead.
Then LaSalle went on a 15-2 tear to close out the first half, taking a 32-25 lead into the break.
Garland’s layup to start the scoring in the second half made the margin nine. A Bozeman layup with about 11:30 to go cut LaSalle’s lead to five, but that was as close as the Bears could get.
Two free throws from Garland made the lead 10, and with less than two minutes to go in the game, a Garland three-pointer pushed it to 18. LaSalle cruised to the 78-59 win.
Garland had a monster second-half, scoring 18 of his game high 25 points. Tyreek Duren followed with 15 points. For Morgan State, Chiles finished with 14 points, followed by Justin Black with 12.
In earlier Friday action, Northern Iowa defeated Loyola Marymount, 90-81, in the tournament opener, and Maryland pummelled Marist, 68-43.
