The Aftermath: SIUE 85, Robert Morris (Spr.) 61

The Cougars have won their first game of the season, defeating Robert Morris of Springfield 85-61.

It wasn't a pretty game. SIUE started with a dominating 31-9 lead, a much better start than we are used to seeing. That start was incredibly important, because the Eagles were not going to surrender. They cut the lead back down all the way to nine at 36-27 following an 18-5 run. That was tough to watch. SIUE needed this game to recover from losing a 14-point lead against Hampton in a four point loss last week.

SIUE's stellar 3-point shooting got the lead back to 16 heading into the break, as SIUE scored a single-half high 49 points.

The team scored 11 points after the final media timeout of the half. I was hoping they could keep the momentum coming out of halftime, but the Cougars were scoreless for more than four minutes to open the second. Robert Morris was pesky and cut the lead back to single digits one more time at nine, but SIUE was just too powerful for the Eagles of the United States Collegiate Athletic Association.

We will take the win, but I am not sure if the focus was really all there. We can be thankful Robert Morris is from such a different basketball pedigree as a USCAA school. A solid Division III school would have probably made SIUE pay for their lack of focus and defensive mistakes. Defensively, the Cougars were able to catch the Eagles off guard with their pressing early, which was not particularly impressive, but was enough to serve its purpose against a bad team.

You could tell the focus was not all there. It was a human-nature sort of problem. The Cougars showed out of the gate and late in the first half that they were capable of scoring at will, they just were not able to keep that focus up for 40 minutes, and now I can tell why we lost those leads in Cancun. There were probably a few instances where a timeout that would have served the team well was not taken. Anyways, we won the game, so it is all just extra scrutiny at this point. I don't even know what I would have typed if we lost this game. I would have probably disbanded the website and started a petition to move to the NAIA.

Kris Davis is the man. The freshman scored 25 points and currently leads the NATION in 3-point percentage, which is great, because I didn't view him as a 3-point shooter early on after I saw him for the first time against MacMurray and Blackburn. The fact is Kris Davis has won his position as a starter. Kevin Stineman is having a great year and I love what he has done. He isn't flashy, but he gets the job done. Davis gets the job done and has that extra little flair. That is enough in my mind for Davis to have earned the job. He will be a starter on this team for three and a half years, unless he suffers from David Boarden syndrome and the team around him gets too good through recruiting for him to really exist. Davis is the future.

Davis was by far the biggest bright spot in a game that was pretty much as much of a guaranteed win as you are going to get. I'll be honest about that. It's also nice to see the Cougars filling up the stat sheet. I was pretty sure this would be a high-scoring game, given RMU-S came in averaging 88 points per game. They were not going to score that many in this game, and if they did SIUE would have scored 110. I am happy with 85 points in this game, although I would have liked to see us drop 100 for the first time since 2008. The Cougars shot 50 percent and were 11-22 from 3 for the E land.

Jerome Jones and Derian Shaffer each had 13 points, Corey Wickware had nine and Stineman had eight. Michael Birts scored seven.

It's nice to see Birts get involved in the offense and for Shaffer to have a game in double-figures, because by in large he has struggled to start the season. It is interesting that Wickware is not scoring as much this season. I hope the absence of Cornelius Chatt isn't effecting his scoring too much. I do feel as though he is being used in a different role this season because there are more guys around him capable of scoring from the guard positions. Speaking of Chatt, I did see him in the crowd. Hope he comes back.

SIUE dominated on the boards, out-rebounding RMU-S 45-30, much because they had a huge size advantage for once. Robert Morris actually out-scored SIUE in the paint though, 18-14 which is bizarre.

The Cougars struggled from the free-throw line again, and also struggled getting there, which is something that should probably be addressed. SIUE was 10-19 at the line. That is not good. They were in a situation to end the first half where they were fouled with 2.2 seconds on the clock and because RMU had just five fouls we were still not in a bonus situation. By then, you should be going for free points.

Give RMU credit for not getting completely embarrassed.

A few guys were not playing in this one.

We heard Zeke Schneider, who was not even in the building may be off the team, but have not confirmed it. (UPDATE: I think he was just sick)

Twitter: KStineman12 Kevin Stineman S/o to @Zeke_Schneider. Kid anit feeling to good.

Charles Joy sat for undisclosed reasons and Mark Yelovich was resting his leg, which is okay.

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