It was a happy start to the Jimmy Drew era of Lincoln men’s basketball Monday night at Jason Gym.
The Blue Tigers dominated on the glass and rolled to an 82-61 victory against the William Woods Owls to officially start the season.
Back in April when Lincoln men’s basketball coach Jimmy Drew was hired, he said it was not going to be an overnight fix to turn the Blue Tigers’ basketball program around. It took Drew, who was hired after six seasons as an assistant coach and director of basketball operations at the University of Central Florida, just one exhibition game to turn heads, not only in Jefferson City, but all across the MIAA.
If Jimmy Drew was looking to make a splash in his head-coaching debut with the Lincoln men’s basketball team, he did a cannonball into the deep end of the swimming pool Monday night. The Blue Tigers trailed by 10 points with a little more than 10 minutes to play against the Missouri-Kansas City Roos, an NCAA Division I program. Lincoln then ended the game on a 15-5 run, as Artese Stapleton scored the go-ahead basket with :10.0 remaining to rally the Blue Tigers to a 59-56 victory at Mabee Fieldhouse.