Bison remain winless after loss to Eagles In a battle to escape D.C. college basketball’s winless cellar, sophomore Simon McCormack marked his first career start for American with six straight points midway through the second half to put the Eagles ahead for good as they held on for a long-awaited first victory of the season, 59-53, over visiting Howard.
Riley Grafft led the Eagles (1-7) with 13 points while Nick Hendra and Stephen Lumpkins had 12 apiece.
Calvin Thompson’s (team-high 14 points) leaner with 2 minutes, 23 seconds remaining was the only field goal in the last five minutes for the Bison (0-8).
Futility has been nothing new for Howard, which hasn’t won more than nine games in a season since 2002-03. But struggles have been far more difficult to digest for American as it rebuilds following consecutive Patriot League titles and two admirable upset bids in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
From the opening whistle, things came fast and furious — the turnovers and missed shots, that is. After Lumpkins scored the game’s first points on a layup, it was seven giveaways and nearly eight minutes before the Eagles scored again, and they finished the half with more turnovers (11) than field goals (7).
Although the Bison turned the ball over only five times in the half, they fared far worse at the offensive end. It was almost six minutes before Paul Kirkpatrick (13 points) had Howard’s first field goal, and the Bison missed all seven of their first-half three-point attempts.
Freshman Dadrian Collins (13 points) had eight of Howard’s first ten points in the second half to help the Bison erase American’s 24-19 halftime margin.
