The men's basketball team made a statement ten seconds into its 96-67 rout over Hillsdale Freewill Baptist University (Okla.) last Thursday at home.
Freshman guard Coleson Rakestraw tossed the ball up to the left side of the backboard where senior forward Davaughn Jackson met it and slammed it through the hoop.
Three hundred rolls of toilet paper immediately flew through the air and covered the court of Murray Sells Gymnasium.
Head coach Clark Sheehy said the team had gone over the play a few times in practice specifically in preparation for the annual Toilet Paper Game.
Jackson said the alley-oop was a statement to the beginning of the season.
"We came out ready to play," Jackson said.
Despite the electrifying start to the game, it took the Golden Eagles several minutes to build a solid lead.
HFB and JBU traded points for the first four minutes before JBU went on an 11-0 run.
Sheehy said the team had to first get stops on defense to open up its fast break play and get a run going.
JBU continued to build its lead through the first half, eventually topping HFB by 24 points.
At the end of the first half, JBU led HFB 52-29.
The Golden Eagles held HFB's field goal percentage for the first half to a mere 30 percent.
Sheehy said that was a good indicator of the team's defensive capabilities for the first game of the season.
JBU continued its dominance over HFB in the second half, extending its lead to 32 points with two minutes left to play in the game.
HFB eventually closed the lead to 29 points before the final buzzer.
JBU shot 58 percent from the floor and 53 percent from behind
the arc.
Jackson led the Golden Eagles in points with 18.
Junior guard Andrius Mikutis led the team in rebounds with 12. Mikutis added 10 points to earn a double-double.
Sheehy said he was proud of how the team handled the energy inside the gym.
"The guys did a good job of playing within themselves and didn't do things we hadn't practiced," he said. "They didn't try to pull off spectacular plays when we needed solid plays."
JBU put up a strong showing on the boards, doubling HFB's efforts. JBU grabbed 50 rebounds for the game, compared to HFB's 25.
Sheehy said the statistic was impressive, but it would take more games to determine whether the team was capable of rebounding that well every game.
Sheehy also said the team needed to do a better job of managing the game and possession of the ball.
JBU had 18 turnovers in the game.
HFB went to line almost twice as many times as JBU, shooting 37 free throws to JBU's 15.
Sheehy said the team would need to cut down on unnecessary fouls in the future in order to be successful.
"We will pick up some fouls just by being aggressive, but we fouled them too much," he said.
The Golden Eagles will have the chance to improve their weaknesses tonight when they travel to Hillsdale for a rematch at 7:30 p.m.
Jackson said he expected the team to fix its defensive problems and perform better in tonight's game.
Sheehy agreed that the team needed to do a better job of guarding the opponent and defending the ball.
"We came out and let them make some easy shots in the second half," he said of last Thursday's game.
Because of illness on the JBU team, Tuesday's away game against Bacone (Okla.) has been rescheduled for Nov. 17.
