GREENSBORO, N.C. – The blazing pace of the Guilford College men's basketball team (6-4, 0-1 ODAC) was too much for Concordia College-Moorhead (8-3, 0-2 MIAC) to handle in Tuesday evening's championship clash of the 2025 Springhill Suites Guilford Men's Holiday Classic, as the Quakers defended their home court and home classic with an 85-60 victory on Jack Jensen Court at the Ragan-Brown FieldHouse.
Guilford's press was super-disruptive, never allowing the Cobbers to find an offensive rhythm leading to a season-high 28 turnovers and a season-low scoring output by the guests. Among those takeaways were 20 Quaker steals which led to a 31-11 edge in points off turnovers. Overall, GC attempted 34 more shots that CC-M, making them at a .402 rate and more-than making up for the visitor's better efficiency of .417. The Quakers also dominated from three, making 12-of-41 against Concordia-Moorhead's 4-for-19, while their second unit was also a clear advantage, outscoring the Cobber reserves, 29-6.
Braylen Salters (Cleveland, Ohio) continued to be a hot-starter, with 13 of his game-high 20 tallies coming in the opening stanza. He finished making 8-of-19 while collecting a trio of offensive rebounds and two steals.
Gabe Proctor (Apex, N.C.) caught fire in the second half to net 15 tallies, albeit on just 4-for-17, adding seven boards.
Reynolds Escher (Atlanta, Ga.) pitched in 10 in reserve while leading the Quakers with eight rebounds.
Dawson Edwards (Durham, N.C.) had five steals and three helpers, however,
Kody Clayton (Cary, N.C.) finished as the tournament's headliner, stuffing the stat-sheet for the second-straight night to be selected as the Springhill Suites Holiday Classic MVP, netting 5-of-7 to score 11 points, adding a game-high four assists and five steals.
Jacob Cook led the Cobbers making 7-of-9 in a double-double showing, netting 20 points and grabbing 10 boards, leading. Peyton Belka pitched in a dozen on just 4-of-11 and 2-for-7 from distance while Payton Schell rounded out double-digit scorers with 11 tallies. Jackson Loge led all players with a dozen rebounds plus a trio of blocks while Alex Franson paced CC-M in assists, with three.
The Holiday Classic hosts would never trail in this one, as they came exploding out of the gates. On their first offensive possession, Salters converted a three-point-play, before he fell a missed free throw short of another one after a Clayton theft. Edwards followed with a tip-in two then a fast-break three as over the course of just 101 seconds of gametime, the Quakers had accrued a trio of steals, a pair of offensive boards, and a 10-0 lead, all the while permitting just a single Cobber shot attempt. That score stood through the under-16 break before Concordia-Moorhead finally got on the board five minutes in. A handful of traded baskets preceded a 7-0 Guilford cluster spanning either side of the second media break, as the hosts upped their edge to 15-points at 22-7 just over halfway through the period.
GC would largely maintain their double-digit edge through the rest of the first half, getting it up to as many as 16 at 39-23 with about two-and-a-half minutes left. From there, the Cobbers made their run. A mini-parade to the charity stripe for Concordia-Moorhead, plus an and-one from Schell and a layup by Loge constituted a 9-0 spurt to cut the deficit back to single-digits. However, on the halves' final possession, Escher got an offensive rebound at the top of the arch and while falling away and off one foot, he knocked down a straight-away trey to snuff out any momentum and get the lead back to 10 at 42-32 at the half.
Into the second stanza, the Cobbers hung around within 16 points for awhile before the Quakers buried them with a seven-minute stretch, during which they caught fire from deep, making four of their seven looks from distance while the defense clamped down, pilling up a 26-5 run and an 80-47 lead. With just five-and-a-half remaining, all the Cobbers could do was make the score look better the rest of the way, closing the gap as the score finalized at 85-60, and standing a Concordia-Moorhead's first non-conference defeat of the year.
For their efforts the last-two days, CC-M's Jacob Cook and GC's
Braylen Salters were named to the All-Tournament team, but it was Clayton, who made 9-of-13 over the last two games while adding 12 rebounds, five of them offensive, eight assists, and nine steals to claim Tournament MVP honors.
It is Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) play from here on out for Guilford, beginning on Saturday, January 3 as they open the new year with a clash against Washington & Lee University tipping off at 2:00 PM at Ragan-Brown.
#GoQuakes
