SEATTLE – The University of Denver men's basketball program dropped its season opener to Seattle by a count of 84-73 on Monday night at the Redhawk Center.
LEADERS:
Seattle's Brayden Maldonado led all scorers with 28 points and five boards, one of three Redhawks to finish in double figures.
Denver's Jeremiah Burke led the Pioneers with 21 points and nine boards, finishing a rebound shy of his first career double-double. Sophomore Carson Johnson finished with 18 points, including going 7-for-9 from the free-throw line. Logan Kinsey rounded out Denver's double-figure scorers with 15 to go with five rebounds. In his collegiate debut on Monday, redshirt freshman Corleone Dandridge had seven rebounds in 19 minutes.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
First Half:
Jeremiah Burke had the hot hand for the Pioneers in the opening segment of the campaign, knocking down his first three shots to score Denver's first eight points. In the opening three minutes however, big man Gabe Oldham picked up two quick fouls, one of three DU staters to pick up two fouls before the second media timeout.
Seattle led by as many as 10 in the opening eight minutes at 22-12, but Denver grew back into the first half, going on a run to trim the deficit to three at 28-25 with 7:58 before the intermission. Coming out of the under-8 media down five, Burke hit two from the line, and Carson Johnson buried a corner triple to knot things back up at 30-30.
The Redhawks outscored Denver 12-7 down the stretch to take a 42-37 lead into the locker room.
Second Half:
After a back and forth start to the second half, Seattle used a 7-0 run in a 2:30 span to push the lead to its biggest of the night at 11.
Seattle continued to build on its lead, stretching it to 16 with 9:26 to go before a Burke layup, and four-straight from Logan Kinsey forced a Redhawks' timeout with 7:53 to go and the margin at 10.
Trailing by the same 10-point margin, Julius Rollins hit a corner three and then a possession later answered a Seattle layin with a thunderous dunk to make it a 78-71 game with 2:03 to play.
Seattle closed out the game down the stretch to earn the 11-point win in the season opener.
NOTES:
- Graduate student forward Jeremiah Burke finished with 21 points and nine rebounds to lead the Pioneers in both categories.
- Burke finished in double figures for the third time in his collegiate career.
- Burke finished with 20+ points for the first time in his career.
- Sophomore guard Carson Johnson finished with 18 points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals.
- Johnson finished in double figures for the eighth-straight game and the 21st time in his collegiate career.
- Senior Logan Kinsey finished with 15 points on 5-7 shooting and five rebounds.
- Kinsey finished in double figures for the second-straight game and for the 52nd time in his four-year NCAA career.
- With his second to last bucket, Kinsey reached 1,000 points in his career.
- Expected starter Shaun Wysocki did not play due to injury.
- Denver was called for 26 fouls in the road opener, compared to 18 Seattle infractions. The Pioneers turned it over 18 times, and only were able to force 12 miscues.
UP NEXT:
Denver will stay on the road to play the middle game of a season-opening three-game road swing on Thursday night when the Pioneers take on Washington. Opening tip on the nationally-televised game on the Big Ten Network is set for 8 p.m. MT.
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