Men's Basketball struggled to find its shooting touch in a home loss Saturday.
The Ravens dropped an 86-70 contest to a Baker University Wildcats team that had no problems shooting the ball.
A rough first half and start to the second half doomed the Ravens. After trailing by 14 points at halftime, the Ravens couldn't slow down the Wildcats to start the second half as the visitors built a 29-point lead with 8:22 to play. The offense finally started to get going for the Ravens at that point and they were able to knock 13 points off the deficit, but Baker didn't allow the Ravens to seriously challenge in the second half.
Matt Austin led the Ravens with 17 points and five rebounds. Jaiden Bristol added 13 points and six boards and Eric Krus scored 11 points. The Ravens shot 45.5% from the floor and 40% from 3-point range in the game. Their 70 points were the fewest in a game this season.
Baker built an early lead in the game, but the Ravens seemed to figure out an answer in the first half. Down 16-9 with 9:46 to play before halftime, the Ravens went on a 10-4 run to close the gap to 20-19. However, the Wildcats closed the half on a 16-3 run to take a 36-22 lead into the halftime break.
The normally lethal Ravens offense struggled in the first half. The Ravens entered the game averaging nearly 11 made 3-pointers per game with a shooting percentage of 42.3% -- third-best in the NAIA. In the first 20 minutes, though, the Ravens made just 2-of-10 from behind the arc and shot 29.2% overall while committing eight turnovers.
Conversely, Baker was 51.7% from the floor and pulled down seven more rebounds than the Ravens.
The Wildcats shooting was even better in the second half as they connected on 66.7% of their shots and finished the game shooting 57.9% overall. They had eight more rebounds than the Ravens and limited the home side to just three offensive boards.
The Ravens drop to 12-5 overall and 9-4 in Heart of America play. They'll have an opportunity to get back in the win column with a road trip to Culver-Stockton College on Wednesday, Jan. 27.
