Bears' Gardner burns Mighty Oaks for 29 pts, 9 rebs, 5 assts, 5 steals; Shawnee State shoots 54.2 percent from field, 40 percent from three in 87-71 win over Oakland City

OAKLAND CITY, Ind. -- Throughout his time inside the River States Conference, Cory Gardner has been one of the conference's best-kept secrets -- not only within the River States Conference but on a national scale as well.

Gardner, a huge cog in the Shawnee State men's basketball program's vast improvement as a team over the past two weeks thanks to the graduate student's cerebral mindset and high IQ play, went off against the Oakland City Mighty Oaks' men's basketball program in a well-deserved breakout performance as the 6-0 guard scored 29 points on 13-17 shooting from the field and added in nine rebounds, five assists and five steals to post team-highs in all four categories and game-highs in three of the four areas en route to leading Shawnee State to a rather convincing 87-71 River States Conference road win over Oakland City Saturday afternoon at the Johnson Center in Oakland City, Ind.

Game Summary

Led by Gardner's stout play in all facets, along with an efficient 20 piece on 7-of-11 shooting from Ezra McKee, the Shawnee State offense enjoyed arguably its best outing of the year as the Bears knocked down 32 of their 59 shots to post a 54.1 percent mark from the field, including a 6-of-15 mark from behind the line (40 percent).

In addition to its offensive efficiency, the Bears also put the clamps on Oakland City with its defensive work as SSU held the Mighty Oaks to 25-of-70 shooting from the field (35.7 percent) and a 2-of-15 mark from three-point range (13.3 percent) as essentially everybody who took the floor for Shawnee State made a positive impact in areas beyond the box score. The Bears did this with AJ Belton, regarded as the group's best defensive talent, dealing with foul trouble through much of the opening half.

Oakland City's leading scorer, Aamir Mack, came into the game averaging 17.8 points and 5.8 rebounds on 48.6 percent shooting, and posted 18 points to go along with six rebounds against Shawnee State -- but was held to 6-of-17 shooting from the floor (35.3 percent) in doing so. Hunter Johnson, the Mighty Oaks' second-leading scorer at 15.6 points per bout, was held to 12 points and six rebounds and shot just 4-of-14 from the floor as Johnson was held to a shooting percentage that was 10 percent underneath his season average in the contest.

Planting the seeds for future success

Knowing that his collegiate basketball days are winding down, Cory Gardner's entire mission as a second semester transfer has been all about getting marks in the win column.

Having played his high school basketball just 60 miles and an hour and five minutes south of the Oakland City University campus at historical powerhouse Owensboro (Ky.) High School, Gardner made his Homecoming game a personal playground of sorts as the crafty and heady guard simply toyed with the Oakland City defense throughout.

Gardner scored or assisted on 12 of Shawnee State's first 18 points to start the game, then kicked the accelerator up several notches by scoring eight points over the final 3:58 of the opening half.

By the first half gun, Gardner had 15 points, three rebounds, and two assists on a strong 6-of-7 shooting from the field to give Shawnee State a 43-32 lead -- but that performance simply proved to be the precursor to what was to come.

In less than 15 minutes of play -- from the 19:42 to the 4:54 marks of the second half -- Gardner scored or assisted on 18 of SSU's first 27 points of the second half, even scoring straightaway three separate times during the stretch off of his own pickpockets defensively. The Western Kentucky native ultimately finished 7-of-10 from the floor in the second half, supplying 14 points, grabbing six rebounds, collecting five steals and posting three assists to finish with his masterful 29-point, nine-rebound, five-steal, five-assist statline.

For the 2024-25 season, Gardner is now averaging 18 points, 6.8 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 3.3 steals per contest -- while shooting an incredible 62 percent from the field.

McKee makes it look easy

While Gardner blitzed the Oakland City backcourt, Shawnee State junior forward Ezra McKee made life difficult for the Oakland City frontline with his scoring efficiency.

McKee was particularly a problem in the opening half -- scoring 10 of his 20 points over a span of 3:58 between the 13:36 and 9:38 markers of the opening half. McKee, who went 5-of-8 to nab 12 points in the opening half, then finished off his strong effort by going 2-of-3 in the second half and 4-of-6 from the free throw line over the final 20 minutes of play to ultimately finish with 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field and his four successful second-half charity stripe tosses in those six attempts.

A critical piece to Shawnee State's success himself, McKee is averaging 12.6 points and six rebounds while shooting 50 percent from the field as the first person off of the bench as of late.

Additional

Beyond the main scoring culprits, many key efforts could be found down the statline.

Donovan Lovelace, who was again aggressive offensively, finished with 14 points and eight rebounds -- including an eight-point, four-rebound second half where the talented 6-9 sophomore went 2-of-3 from the field and 4-of-6 from the free throw line. Marcos Vazquez came off the bench to play 28 impressive minutes, posting eight points, six rebounds, five assists and a steal while only committing one turnover to boot. Together, Vazquez and Gardner tallied 10 of Shawnee State's 13 assists -- with only three turnovers between them as the duo combined for a 3.33-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio.

AJ Belton battled through early foul trouble to post seven points, three rebounds and two steals on an efficient 3-of-5 shooting in 17 minutes, while Tre Beard still played all 40 minutes and found additional ways to impact the game through his defensive work and steadying presence out front as a primary ballhandler.

Amaury Hawes and Damon Charles chipped in five points and five rebounds in the win while Elkin Ramirez also contributed minutes in Shawnee State's third straight victory.

The Bears (8-10, 3-3 River States Conference) will turn their attention to a Thursday, Jan. 23 River States battle against newcomer Indiana-Columbus at Waller Gymnasium. IU-Columbus, who is in its first season officially in the league from a basketball standpoint, hails from Columbus, Ind. The RSC bout will commence at 6 p.m.