Lions Defeat D1 Opponent at Home
(St. Louis, MO) – Lindenwood basketball had a Thanksgiving week coming out party. With students on break, over 700 fans came to Hyland Arena to see the Lions play their first home court Division 1 game against a Division 1 foe.
The game had a little bit of everything. Lindenwood jumped out to a huge first half, but Idaho State stormed back to create a second-half ‘barn-burner’. The Bengals took a late lead and the Lions had to come from behind to force overtime.
Lindenwood’s band, fans and cheer leaders banded together to fight for the win. Guard Chris Childs’ game-winning jumper gave the Lions their third win, second against a Division 1 opponent and their first against a D1 team at home.
The coming out party found Hyland Center (The Bob) rocking with music, the pep band and a very nice crowd for a Thanksgiving eve contest.
Childs hit a big three-pointer to force the overtime and then hit the game-winner with .9 seconds to go.
Child’s for the win! @LUMensBball pulls it off! pic.twitter.com/3ZepsHot8r
— Harry Schroeder (@FatherHarry1) November 24, 2022
Inside the Game
Bryant College transfer Childs led all scorers with his Lions’ career-high of 23 points and collecting ten rebounds for his first LU double-double. Senior Kevin Caldwell matched his own D1 high of 20 points. This was his third 20-point performance and second in a row.
Lindenwood led 32-17 at the half only to see Idaho State score 51 second half points, as the Bengals buried nine second half three-pointers. The smaller Lions out rebounded Idaho State by a startling 48 to 33 margin.
Western Illinois transfer Cam Burrell contributed 19 points, seven rebounds and three big blocked shots. LU (3-4) was scrappy, tenacious and repeatedly dug deeper to get a stop or fight for a rebound.
Head coach Kyle Gerdeman told me his team is smaller than most, so they have to be tougher than most.
Prior to Childs’ crucial three in regulation, Caldwell soared into the Hyland Center rafters to block a layup. That play set up Childs’ heroics.
Childs says Caldwell does whatever it takes to help his team succeed and from there he needed to trust his instincts and didn’t want to disappoint his mother!
The Vibe at ‘The Bob’
Both Gerdeman and Childs bragged to me about the fans and the environment at the Hyland Center. Gerdeman says the fans really gave his team an edge and some extra energy. Since the students were on break, the crowd was mostly people from the St. Charles area. The 731 in attendance indicate the Lions will have representative attendance once the students are back in town.
As I’m writing this the Lions are prepping for a road game at Illinois and they could very well get blasted by more than the 29 points that Kenpom.com says will be the final margin of defeat, but this is a team that wants to prove they belong in Division 1 and the Ohio Valley Conference.
After scoring 23 points, grabbing ten rebounds, hitting the game-winning shot and granting post-game interviews, Chris Childs was out working on his outside shooting. The Lions had a Lindenwood coming out party, but Childs wants more than one fun evening.
We don’t know, nor can we predict where this Lindenwood season will go, but after seven games the Lions are holding their own and winning over fans.
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Done like only you can @Frank_Cusumano. So perfect. Respectful. Hopeful. Personal. You've always been the best. @DanRolfes, you are in our prayers still today. Thanks for sharing.
As we said the 'closed' transfer portal keeps growing. Paperwork delays and/or no regard for deadlines. Over 2K in the portal now. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that. Just saying before you think your program won't have more players leaving, give it a minute to see
BTW, despite the portal being 'closed' you'll still hear about players entering it because sometimes paperwork is slow AND all they have to do is sue to be able to enter later.
Admittedly I am no recruiting expert, but I'm seeing these reports about which coaches have been crushing the portal. We'll know who did what when we see them play, but no one has been more active than @TSUTigersMBB's @coachpenny1. 6 D1's among the 9 he's signed.
