"It seems like everybody seems to shoot well against us," Shouse said. "I think we were so worried about their post that we weren't closing out. You like to play the percentages, but when it's their night, it's their night."
Shouse admitted he was more concerned with containing the inside tandem of 6-foot-7 senior Shannon Jones and 6-foot-6 freshman Joe Qarcini. The pair was held to just 16 points on 5-for-14 shooting. But the aggressive inside approach left the perimeter open for Spalding, who capitalized with 12-for-22 shooting from the outside.
"Obviously, as always, our weakness seems to be our post," Shouse said. "So we were trying to help too much."
It didn't help that Asbury shot the ball poorly, going 38 percent (23-for-60) from the field and 26 percent (8-for-31) from the 3-point.
The Eagles have shot just 39 percent from the field in their five losses. The inability to get buckets from the outside allowed the Golden Eagles to collapse on sophomore center Keith Price, who played more than 30 minutes but got off just eight shots, hitting seven of them.
"(Keith's) one of the few that really had a good game for us, and we didn't use him like we should," Shouse said. "One thing that would help is if we'd hit a couple of shots in the second half that would open it up for him because maybe they would have stuck to us on the perimeter a little more.
"I think we put our head down and drove too much instead of looking at him. He was 4-for-4 in the first half, and we forgot about him."
Price's 16 points led the Eagles. Senior Michael Spann and sophomore Cory Britt each added 14, and sophomore Phillip Morrison scored 13 and picked up five assists, although he was 0-for-6 from the 3-point line.
Shouse saw plenty of areas his team needs to work on before resuming its schedule Jan. 9 against Ohio Christian.
"We didn't shoot the ball well; we didn't win in the hustle category," he said. "I didn't think we got to many loose balls, 14 offensive rebounds (for Spalding). Our press worked against us at times."
The Eagles have three more games before opening the conference season Jan. 17 at Indiana University-Southeast.
Asbury played without junior starting forward Jordan Noble, who was out for the second-straight game with an injury.
Senior John Ensign left the bench after being taken out by Shouse early in the second half.
"He was sent to the locker room," Shouse said after the game.
