Montgomery, Ala- the Crusader basketball team kicked off the 25-26 campaign with a 94-85 win over Talladega College today at the Jimmy Faulkner Classic in Montgomery. Carey has won three of the last four meetings with the Tornadoes dating back to 2023.
Jamar Jenkins picked up the first bucket of the game, and of the season, with a three to give the Crusaders the early lead. After the ice was broken, both teams went on an offensive onslaught for the first half with Carey going to the locker-room up 57-45. The Crusaders shot 53.3% from beyond the arc in the first half with five different players notching a three. Carey had three players in double-digits before the half. Talladega wasn't far behind, shooting 40% from beyond the arc and just under 80% from the free-throw line. Carey pushed the lead to fifteen just before the half on a couple of free throws from Jenkins until Talladega hit a three with 0:02 seconds to play to finish the scoring.
It took almost two minutes into the second half before
Javeon Gordon hit a three to get the Crusader offense back rolling. Between the fifteen- and fourteen-minute mark,
Troy Dunn banged home a three and a layup on back-to-back possessions to push the Crusader lead to twenty, it's largest of the game.
Malik Franklin extended the lead to twenty-one with the last of the Crusaders' twelve three pointers with 12:51 left to play. With 6:53 remaining, Jenkins sank two free throws to put Carey up by twenty-four.
The Tornadoes didn't exactly go quietly. The Carey offense went cold for almost six minutes and allowed Talladega an opportunity to get back in the game, closing the gap to seven with 1:15 to go. Twenty seconds later, Franklin hit a jumper to put the nail in the coffin and push the lead back to nine. The Tornadoes responded with a basket of their own, but a dunk by
Randarius Hughes put the exclamation point on the season opener.
"I thought our defensive pressure caused Talladega a lot of problems and we took advantage of forty-one points off of turnovers," said Head Coach
Steve Knight. "We had some good runs in both halves. Our effort was really good, and we did some nice things," he added.
The Crusaders picked up fifty-three points from the bench along with eighteen second chance points. Carey was outrebounded 41-36, but had sixteen steals to Talladega's nine. Both teams shot 66.7% from the charity stripe as well as both shooting over 35% from beyond the arc. Franklin led all scorers with 21, while Dunn finished with 20 and Jenkins with 15, respectfully. Hughes led the Crusaders with 7 rebounds.
There's no rest for the weary as the Crusaders look to improve to 2-0 tomorrow as they face Fisk University out of Nashville, Tn. It will be the first ever meeting between the two teams.
