SILOAM SPRINGS -- History was made at Bill George Arena on Saturday.
And, no, it wasn't a record number of toilet paper rolls tossed onto the court during John Brown University's annual "Toilet Paper Game," which the Golden Eagles won 97-65.
For the first time in the tradition's 30-plus year history, the opponent declined its free throw after a technical foul was issued when the capacity home crowd launched thousands of rolls of toilet paper onto John Sheehy Court after JBU's first made field goal of the season.
"It's all for fun, it's tradition and we don't want to get a free point that way," said Ecclesia coach Al McCarron. "And the (toilet paper) is all donated, so we didn't want to take advantage of that. We were just fortunate to play in front of this type of crowd."
The Golden Eagles (1-0) had a special play drawn up, but the Royals (0-2) snuffed it out, forcing junior Marquis Waller to instead score on an isolation play when he hit a turnaround jumper from six-feet out just 16 seconds into regulation.
"The play was for me to go back door to get a lob, but they actually played it pretty good," said Waller, who compared the feeling to hitting a game-winning shot. "We just swung it, I drove it into the post and got a little room to make it happen."
JBU coach Jason Beschta wasn't surprised when the designed play for his team's first possession didn't pan out.
"Whatever you try to draw up for the first play of this game breaks down every time," said the Golden Eagles' third-year coach. "I was glad that we were able to get that early bucket and it didn't take several minutes, though."
Jake Caudle, a junior from Bentonville, lit it up from the arc to ignite JBU to a 51-29 halftime lead. He was 5 of 8 from three-point range and scored 21 of his game-high 26 points in the first half. Freshman Densier Carnes chipped in 15 points off the bench for JBU.
Waller, who made "the shot," but later missed a wide-open dunk, finished with nine points.
"I was trying to dunk it too hard," Waller said. "But I'm glad I hit 'the shot,' glad we got the win and looking forward to a great season."
Cash Kreuger and Dequcelan Bagsby each had 12 points to pace the Royals.
Sports on 11/05/2017