WILMINGTON — Wilmington College won the hustle stats Sunday in a 85-72 win over Berea in non-conference men’s basketball action at Fred Raizk Arena in Hermann Court.
The Fightin’ Quakers forced 21 Mountaineer turnovers and turned them into 29 points. In addition, Wilmington had a 21-7 advantage in second-chance points. Wilmington had 19 offensive rebounds, led by Noah Chatman’s five.
“This team has a chance to be special defensively,” said WC head coach K.C. Hunt. “We have enough athletes and we actually have a group that wants to guard, and play the way we want to play. We’ve shown spurts that we can be special on the defensive end. We have to keep getting better. There were a couple of mental breakdowns to start the second half, leaving shooters.”
Chatman had 15 points and eight rebounds for Wilmington. Kevin Lewis had 13 points, 12 rebounds and three assists. It was the Clark Montessori product’s first double-double in his career. His on-ball defense also was vital during the first half run.
“Kevin is an explosive athlete,” said Hunt. “He has a high-motor, and I thought he was great on both ends of the floor – especially going to the glass.”
In all, five WC players reached double figures in points — Andrew Russell 14, Nathan Scott 11 and Malcolm Pittman 10. Scott and Pittman came off the bench.
Wilmington is now 2-2 on the year after an 0-3 start. Berea drops to 2-2.
“I told the guys after the game, it was a total team effort,” said Hunt. “We had numerous guys in foul trouble. Christian (Jones) and DJ (Iles) never really got into the game, period. It was really nice to see some of us step up as a group and share the basketball.”
The Quakers scored the first basket of the game for a 2-0 lead then fell behind 12-4 at the 15:23 mark of the first half.
Will Patrick sparked a 14-2 run with a three-pointer then DJ Iles capped the WC turnaround with a three-pointer at 9:41 to put the Quakers on top 18-14. Wilmington never trailed the rest of the way and held Berea without a field goal over the final 4:20 of the first half.
The Mountaineers started the second half with a 6-0 burst to cut the difference to 42-32. Berea pulled within 57-50 with 11:39 to go in the second half.
The Quakers hit 14 of 18 free throws over the final half of the second half to dash any possible Mountaineers’ comeback attempts.
SUMMARY
November 27, 2016
@Fred Raizk Arena
Wilmington 85 Berea 72
B 26.46…..72
W 42.43…..85
(72) BEREA (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Bizzle-Brown 2-1-4-9 Hinton 4-0-0-8 Miller 1-1-0-3 Parker 3-2-4-12 Myrks 3-0-9-15 Glasgow 1-1-2-5 Jackson 5-0-2-12 Butts 2-2-2-8 McCollum 0-0-0-0 Martin 0-0-0-0 Keibler 0-0-0-0 Aten 0-0-0-0. TOTALS 21-7-23-72
(85) WILMINGTON (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Russell 5-0-4-14 Chatman 7-0-1-15 Jones 1-0-2-4 Lewis 4-1-4-13 Iles 1-1-0-3 Patrick 2-2-0-6 Jones 0-0-2-2 Smith 1-0-0-2 Greene 1-0-3-5 Harris 0-0-0-0 Pittman 5-0-0-10 Scott 3-3-2-11 Hansford 0-0-0-0 Dunson 0-0-0-0 Streiter 0-0-0-0. TOTALS 30-7-18-85
FIELD GOALS: B 21-51 ( Hinton 4-4 Myrks 3-4); W 30-74 (Chatman 7-9 Lewis 4-6 Pittman 5-7)
3 PT FIELD GOALS: B 7-17 (Butts 2-5); W 7-27 (Scott 3-6)
FREE THROWS: B 23-26 (Myrks 9-10); W 18-23 (Russell 4-4)
REBOUNDS: B-35 (Jackson 9); W-46 (Lewis 12 Chatman 8 Patrick 6 Russell 4 Pittman 4 Scott 4)
ASSISTS: B-11 (Miller 4); W-15 (Jones 5 Lewis 3 Greene 3 Chatman 2 Iles 2)
STEALS: B-5; W-8 (Russell 2 Pittman 2)
BLOCKED SHOTS: B-6 (Jackson 3); W-2 (Scott 1 Dunson 1)
TURNOVERS: B-21; W-13
