Brasfield, Flynn Leads Scots Past Beloit on Saturday

Seven Monmouth players score at least seven points each

by Nathan Baliva

MONMOUTH, Ill. (12/04/2022) — The Monmouth College men's basketball team took the lead with 14:10 to play in the first half and never looked back on Saturday, winning at Beloit 77-65. The Scots (5-3, 2-0) had balanced scoring with seven players scoring at least seven points as they won their second conference game of the week.

The Scots didn't score for the first 3:30 of the game and trailed 4-0 when Jordan Metcalf (Aledo, Illinois) scored at the 16:24 mark. Beloit led 6-4 when Kendall Brasfield (Chicago, Illinois) tied the game and Metcalf put the Scots on top 8-6 with 14:10 to play in the half. Neither team scored for the next three minutes before Declan Flynn (Monmouth, Illinois) put the Scots up 10-6. Beloit got to within one at 12-11 before a 10-0 Scots run that included 3-pointers from Flynn and David Williams (Loves Park, Illinois).

Another 3-pointer from Flynn put the Scots up 26-13 and after a mini-Beloit run, Ganon Greenman (Alpha, Illinois) scored for a 29-18 lead with 1:55 left in the half. Yuvraj Sidhu (Coppell, Texas) scored the last points of the half and Monmouth took a 31-20 lead into the locker room.

Kyle Taylor (Moline, Illinois) pushed the lead back to 13 early in the second half before a 5-0 Buccaneers run. The lead stayed in the 8-12 range until Brasfield's layup put the Scots on top by 14 with 15:32 left and Taylor pushed the lead to 16 at 46-30. Beloit cut the lead back down to 11 and Jordan Hill (Chicago, Illinois) hit a 3-pointer and Brasfield made two free throws. The lead peaked at 18 when Brasfield dunked off a feed from Hill with 8:12 left.

Beloit went on a run to cut the lead to 12 and Williams hit a 3-pointer with 5:08 left. Beloit scored the next four but Sidhu and Brasfield scored to push the lead back to 15. Beloit again got it down to 11 with 1:36 left and then hit a 3-pointer for a 73-65 game with 51 seconds to play. Taylor made two free throws and after a Beloit miss, Williams made two free throws with 24 seconds left for the final score of 77-65.

Brasfield led the Scots with 20 points on 9-of-15 shooting. Flynn had 14 points while Metcalf had nine. Metcalf and Williams led the team with six rebounds and Metcalf had a team-leading four steals.

MONMOUTH MOMENTS: Monmouth and Beloit split last year's games with the home team winning both contests. The Scots won in Beloit in January 2020 and are now 5-1 in their last six games against the Buccaneers. Williams has scored at least eight points and made at least one 3-pointer in every game this season. Brasfield has at least seven points in every game Taylor and Williams had eight points while Hill and Sidhu both finished with seven. All nine Scots that played made field goals. The Scots were 7-for-13 (53.8%) from 3-point range as Flynn and Williams both made two. Monmouth shot 51.8% from the field, 58.6% in the second half. Monmouth forced 18 turnovers and scored 22 points off those Beloit miscues with 15 fast break points. Taylor had three of Monmouth's 10 steals. The Scots have one more game before finals, playing at Illinois College on Wednesday after the women's 5:30 p.m. game against IC.