DAYTONA BEACH, Florida - In front of over 1,500 family, friends, and fans the Steve & Vicky Ridder Court at the ICI Center was officially dedicated in honor of Embry-Riddle Men's Basketball Head Coach
Steve Ridder and his wife Vicky on Friday evening. Those in attendance saw Coach Ridder's 2022-23 Eagles blow out visiting Atlantis 90-56 in their final tune-up before the campaign officially gets under way next weekend.
The result was never in doubt as the Blue and Gold jumped out to a 9-0 lead and never even thought about looking back, cruising to the 34-point win as Ridder watched his 34th season at the helm of the ERAU program get started.
Dru Nickson's dunk at the 16:36 mark made it 9-0, and after another easy lay in from Nickson on the next ERAU possession,
Malcolm Whitlow hit a jumper before
Michael McCalister scored the next six points, giving the home team a 17-3 cushion.
The lead grew to 25-8 on a
Jon Alessandro layup with just under 10 minutes to play in the first, and the Atlanteans finally got to double-digits with 8:18 on the clock, but it only cut the Eagle cushion to 25-11.
Whitlow's bucket and-one at the 1:28 mark made it a 30-point game at 45-15, nad DeJean Desiré capped a big first half with a breakaway dunk as ERAU took a 47-15 lead into the break.
The second half was more of the same for the Blue and Gold, with the Eagle bench getting the majority of playing time in the closing period. All 14 Eagles that dressed got in the game, with a dozen Eagles etching their name in the scorebook. Embry-Riddle shot 45% in the contest and went 20-for-27 at the free throw line en route to the 90-56 final.
Nickson and Whitlow finished with a team-high 13 points each, while McCalister went for 10 points, six rebounds, and four assists.
Jack Dillard came off the bench to score nine points, while
Jared Berry had seven points, five rebounds, two assists and a pair of steals.
Embry-Riddle will officially open the 2022-23 season on Friday, Nov. 11 when it hosts the GSC-SSC Classic. The Eagles open with West Georgia at 8 p.m. on Friday before taking on Lee (Tenn.) on Saturday at 8 p.m.
The 2022-23 Embry-Riddle Men's Basketball season is presented by Daytona Kia.
