It was short notice for Incarnate Word men's basketball but the Cardinals wasted no time in disposing of Ecclesia College on Sunday afternoon at the McDermott Center.
UIW ran to a 117-73 decision over the Royals in a game scheduled just four days ago. Plus, the Cardinals less than 24 hours ago won an overtime game over Cameron in Lone Star Conference play. Incarnate Word is now 15-9 for the year while EC is 5-18.
The scenario was Texas A&M International had a scheduling snafu causing the Dustdevils to cancel their game at UIW on February 21. TAMUI, charged with finding an opponent to fill out the UIW slate came up with Ecclesia which was to be in the area. Thus the two met on Sunday.
Wasted no time? The Cardinals scored the first 10 points of the game. At the 16:27 mark Incarnate Word was up 14-4 and only once thereafter would the margin drop below double figure points.
Incarnate Word played 12 guys and all dozen scored points. The high guy was junior center Ian Markolf with 17 to go with a game high 11 rebounds and his third double-double of the year.
Double figure players for UIW were senior forward Chris Johnson (14), freshman guard Darrell Southworth (14), and junior guard Isai Pina (career high 13). Also, senior guard Shaun Umeh (12) and Dionelle Rucker (10) finished with double figures.
Some other notables were Jonah Ytuarte getting his career high seven points, the Cardinals shooting a season best .617 from the field, and having the biggest margin of the year of 44 points. Also, the 117 points were the most for a single game since the 1999-2000 UIW Crusaders put 123 on National Christian.
Incarnate Word now returns to Lone Star Conference action with a pair of games to conclude the regular season. Wednesday UIW hosts Abilene Christian on senior night and then travels to Angelo State on Saturday to finish it.
As of now, UIW rests in fourth position in the chase for seedings in the upcoming LSC championship tournament set to begin February 29 in Allen, Texas. Eight teams get in. The Cardinals could be seeded as high as third but no lower than sixth.
