Howard Falls To American
Washington, DC—December 12—Brayden Billbe scored 10 of his 14 points in the second half and Arvydas Eitutavicius tallied all of his nine after intermission to lead American University to a 72-60 win over Howard University in a non-conference men’s game at Bender Arena. The win was the third straight for the Eagles (3-6) while the Bison (1-5) had their one-game streak snapped.
Howard played well for the first 15 minutes of the game, opening a 10-point lead before suffering a meltdown the last five and allowing American to cut the deficit to 36-34 at the half.
The Eagles’ junior guard Andre Ingram led the charge by scoring 15 of his game-high 21 points. Howard went cold and for the fifth time in six games and let the game get away.
“We have to learn to play 40 minutes of basketball,” said Howard Coach Gil Jackson, in his first season.
Eitutavicius, a junior guard, fueled a 17-5 run with a three pointer to start the half as the Eagles took a 51-41 lead nine minutes into the second half. Brayden, a 6-10 junior center who had a decided height advantage over the Howard frontline, which has no player over 6-6, did most of his damage from in close.
The Bison shot a season-low 18 percent (5 of 27) in the second half and 35 percent for the game. Junior forward Darryl Hudson, who was coming off back-to-back 19 point games, scored 13 points, nine coming from the free throw line while junior guards Will Gant and Darek “Skip” Mitchell contributed 13 and 10, respectively.
Howard gets a week off before taking on the University of Oregon on the road, December 20.
GAME NOTES: Senior point guard Louis Ford went scoreless for the first time in his career…freshman Eugene Myatt continues to show flashes of his offensive skills as he scored all 7 of his points in the first half…the Bison defense forced 19 American University turnovers and converted them into 23 points…for the fifth time in six games, Howard was out-rebounded, this time 40-28…both teams shot over 80 percent from the free throw line.
