The Kuyper College Men's Basketball team is down in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands for two games against the University of Virgin Islands this week and weekend. The Cougars flew into the Virgin Islands on Wednesday evening. Tonight was game one of their trip, and the Buccaneers of UVI defeated the Cougars by a score of 97-72. 

Three point shooting and turnovers were the key issues for the Cougars in this one, resulting in the loss. The Cougars shot just 4/20 (20%) from three, and they committed 23 turnovers. However, the Virgin Islands shot 8/24 (33.3%) from three and committed just 9 turnovers. The Buccaneers scored 30 points off Kuyper turnovers, and that proved to be too much to overcome for the Cougars. 

Kuyper went into the halftime break down 46-33. The Cougars were unable to cut that halftime lead early in the second half, so the Buccaneers were able to maintain a comfortable lead to the finish. 

Kuyper was led in scoring by Sam Dillard and Elijah Searcy, who both finished with 13 points. Dillard grabbed 7 rebounds, and Searcy grabbed 5, to go along with their scoring outputs. Austin Stone added an efficient 12 points on 5/7 shooting from the field. Travis Jones and Herman Brown each scored 9 points for Kuyper as well. 

Kuyper's record moves to 7-10 on the year, and they will take on the University of Virgin Islands again on Saturday evening at 5:00pm ET. In the meantime, the Cougars will watch film from the game, get a shootaround in, and enjoy the sunshine that St. Thomas, VI has to offer.