Kaase dropped in 27 points on 11-of-17 shooting from the floor and was aided by 15 points off-the-bench from junior guard Kevin Forrester (Wytheville, VA/George Wythe) and 11 from junior guard Mike Edwards (Richmond, VA/Steward School). Kaase’s effort for the Tigers helped offset a 20-point, 16-rebound effort by all-ODAC forward Jason Sager for Eastern Mennonite, while Korey Whiting chipped in with 16 and E.J. Arrington ten.
Hampden-Sydney never trailed in the game after bolting out to an early 10-0 lead in the first half and then using a 10-2 run to start the second half. After EMU trimmed the first half lead to four points, 13-9, the Tigers used another strong run (10-4) to push their advantage back to ten, 23-13, with 8:41 left in the stanza. The game drew as close as four points again, 32-28, on a Sager layup with 2:23 remaining, but a Kaase drop-in gave the Tigers the six point lead before a foul at the first-half buzzer put E.J. Arrington at the line where he sank both freebies to make it a four point game, 34-30, at the break.
Using the strong second half start, the Tigers raced out to a 21-point lead, 60-39, fueled by seven points from Forrester. Eastern Mennonite cut the lead to 14 (66-52) on a Korey Whiting layup with 7:13 to play, but the Tigers pushed the advantage back to 18 points (73-55) on a three-point play by sophomore Tyler Murray (Atlanta, GA/Harrison) at the 5:59 mark.
A Jason Sager put-back with 39 seconds to play wrapped up an 11-3 run by the Royals that cut the Tiger margin to ten points, but it was as close as EMU could get as Tiger senior guard Matt Guill (Emmaus, PA/Emmaus) connected on four-of-six free throws down the stretch to seal the contest for H-SC.
Hampden-Sydney shot a blistering 58.3 percent (14-of-24) in the second half and finished the game shooting 52 percent (28-for-54) from the floor. Meanwhile, the team turned in a season-low 25 percent (3-for-12) effort from beyond the arc while making 66 percent (19-for-29) from the charity stripe. The Tigers were out-rebounded by three, 38-35, but forced 21 turnovers and recorded eight steals.
Eastern Mennonite meanwhile, shot just 31.4 percent (11-for-35) in the second half and ended the contest with a 36.5 percent (23-for-63) from the floor. The Royals connected on just 1-of-16 (6.3%) from three-point range, but missed only three free throws (19-for-22) for an 86.4 percent clip for the game.
Hampden-Sydney returns to action Wednesday, January 11, as the Tigers host 14th-ranked (D3hoops.com) Randolph-Macon College at 7 pm in S. Douglas Fleet Gymnasium. The game will be broadcast live on FM 95.7 WFLO and on the internet at www.hsc.edu/athletics.