KINGSPORT, Tenn. - After falling in the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) Tournament semifinals last season, the CIU men's basketball team began their 2023 tournament revenge tour with a thrashing of Bluefield (Va.) 68-51 in round one of the AAC Tournament. The Rams have now won at least one game in four of the last five AAC tournaments.
CIU and Bluefield battled back and forth through much of the first half and found themselves tied at 24-24 with 3:32 remaining in the half. The Rams found their groove before the break, however, going on a mini 6-3 run capped off by a Darrian Oates layup to put the Rams up 30-27 at the break.
The Rams broke the game open, starting the second half on a 15- 0 run thanks to some timely buckets from DiAnthony Heathcock to put CIU up 45-27. The closest Bluefield would get for the rest of the contest was 53-40, as CIU shot 53% from the field in the second. The Rams only scored four points in the game's final eight minutes but still managed to pull the 17-point win.
The Rams' big three of Heathcok, Oates, and Skyler McKinney looked in prime postseason form, each scoring in double-digits. Heathcock led the way with 19 points and eight rebounds, while McKinney chipped in 15 points and five boards, and Oates added five rebounds of his own to go along with 16 points. Bryce Cause was solid for CIU as well, grabbing seven boards, while Jalen Brinson tallied five assists and six rebounds. Christian Howard was CIU's most productive player off the bench scoring nine.
The key to the game was CIU's second-half defensive effort holding Bluefield to just 24 second-half points and a dismal 9-of-36 (25%) from the field.
What Coach Tony Stockman is saying: "The beginning of the second half is what won us the ball game. Hopefully, we can get some more scoring in the first half tomorrow and finish a little better than we did today. Props to our guys for the way they played defensively tonight. It's tough to hold a team to 51 at any level of college basketball."
Up Next: The Rams will face No. 2 seeded Reinhardt (Ga.) tomorrow evening at 7:30 PM in the AAC quarterfinals.
