Avila Wins Fifth Straight Over Friends

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Donte' Simpson set an impressive milestone, Brandon Johnson brought the house down with a highlight, and Avila men's basketball (5-16, 4-12 KCAC) continued its recent dominance of Friends (4-17, 3-12 KCAC), defeating the Falcons for the fifth straight time with a 72-61 victory in Mabee Fieldhouse on Thursday night.

After the Eagles earned the win in all three meetings, including the KCAC Tournament, a season ago, Avila has now swept the season series against Friends for the second year in a row. The game was fairly close early, with four ties and five lead changes over the first few minutes, but once the Eagles took control they never let the Falcons back in. Avila led by as many as 15 late in the first half, and held firmly to that edge in an 11-point win.

Three-point shooting and turnovers were key differences in a game that otherwise was fairly statistically even despite the double-digit win for the Eagles. The two teams had similar field goal percentages but Avila allowed Friends to make just four three-pointers in the entire game, out-shooting Friends 29% to 15% from beyond the arc. Further, Avila committed just five turnovers in the game – by far their fewest in a game this season – against 14 for Friends – not a huge number, but a big disparity, and a key reason why the Falcons were never able to stage a rally in the second half.

It's becoming clear that this edition of Avila's offense can be dangerous if it gets in gear. Now that they're both available, Avila's expected frontcourt duo of Craig Jordan and Eric Smith Jr. had their best game of the second semester: Jordan scored 14 points with six rebounds, while Smith shot 50% from the field to score a game-high 18 along with five boards, three assists and three steals.

Donte' Simpson became the latest entrant into the Avila men's basketball 1,000-point club by doing one of the things he's done so well in his career, hit a free throw. For a guy who's always been known more for his exploits as a rebounder and a distributor, 1,000 career points in an Avila uniform is an impressive feat.

But even on a night where Simpson made some headlines, Brandon Johnson stole the show with a highlight-reel dunk midway through the second half, where he rose up past a couple of Falcons to snag a contested miss from Jordan and slam it back down with one hand, a rare sight for the home squad in recent seasons. Johnson finished with eight points off the bench for the Eagles.

Tim Barbieri had a solid game for the Falcons with 12 points and nine boards, and Steve Staco was a surprising top performer with a double-double off the bench. In probably his last ever matchup against the Eagles, Ian Konek finished with eight points on 2-of-12 shooting.

Up next, Avila men's basketball will head back to the road to Salina, Kansas to face Kansas Wesleyan on Saturday, January 28. JV men's basketball gets the tripleheader started at 2:45, with women's basketball to follow at 5 and varsity men's basketball rounding out the night at 7 PM. As always, you can watch all the action live on the KCAC Network.