GREENSBORO, N.C. – Claiming the lead just 11 seconds in at Nininger Hall, the Guilford College men's basketball team (8-7, 2-4 ODAC) never turned back, dominating Bridgewater College (6-8, 2-3 ODAC) wire-to-wire in their biggest blowout win since 2019-20, 108-72, in a potentially pivotal Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) contest on Saturday afternoon.
Accumulating a season-high 23 steals for the second-consecutive game, the Quakers began rewriting the record books still with ten regular season games to play, as they brought their season total for steals as a team up to 223, the ninth-most as a collective in program-history. Individually,
Braylen Salters (Cleveland, Ohio) also began his ascent up a statistical rank, connecting on eight free throws, rising his season total to 109 and crack the Division-III era top-10 for free throw makes in a season. Finally, GC's margin of victory of 36 is not only the largest the Quakers have ever had over the Eagles, but the largest they have seen in over half a decade since routing Eastern Mennonite by 45 on February 8, 2020.
Outshooting Bridgewater .440 to .389 overall and .278 to .150 from three while also making more free throws, 24 on 39 tries, than the Eagles received, finishing 13-of-20 is a strong formula for success to begin with, but what really stood out was Guilford's bench scoring and points in transition. The Quakers pushed the tempo for a season-high 32 points, more than doubling up BC's 14 on the break, while their second-unit enjoyed their second-best output of the season, besting Eagle reserves 56-25. Also notable, is GC winning the battle of the boards for the first time against conference competition this season, 57-47, including 24 offensive rebounds, their most since the calendar change.
Getting contributions on the scoresheet from 16 different players, the Quakers really benefitted from their balance as no one eclipsed 20 points, but only two players failed to find the bottom of the net and 10 contributors netted multiple baskets. Salters' aforementioned eight makes at the charity stripe spurred him to a team-leading 19 tallies along with five rebounds, tied for the team-high.
Rival Axselle (Mechanicsville, Va.) got the engine revved for GC, dumping in all 14 of his points in the first 20 minutes of action, making 5-of-7 including a pair of threes. The headliner of the Quakers with double-digits was
Ke Edwards (Hickory, N.C.), however, as the transfer got rolling, making 6-of-8 to net 16 points, his most in his short time with Guilford.
Gabe Proctor (Apex, N.C.) could not get going shooting the ball, but made a huge impact in other areas with career-highs of six assists and five steals, both of them being career-highs. Finally,
Christian Bacon (Lithia Springs, Ga.),
Reynolds Escher (Atlanta, Ga.), and
Enzo Geremski (Winston-Salem, N.C.) all finished even with Salters for the team-lead in rebounds with five each.
Carter Palmer was outstanding, with the best game of his collegiate career, scoring a game-high 22 points on top of seven rebounds, which also paced all players, along with Moustapha Diop. Biop contributed a dozen points while Maleek Richardson completed the double-digit scorers with 10 tallies and a team-high three assists, although he also was responsible for eight of BC's season-high 27 turnovers on his own.
The Quakers took it to the Eagles right from the jump in this one, creating chaos on the offensive glass and with active hands, forcing eight turnovers and collecting eight offensive rebounds over the opening dozen minutes of play. Individually, Axselle was aggressive attacking the BC defense in the mid-range, matching Bridgewater's team scoring output on his own, while Salters registered seven to run up a 35-10 lead by the under-eight break.
Tapping deeper into the bench earlier than usual, GC just continued to rack up the points, receiving contributions from all-12 players to appear.
Ke Edwards accrued a Quakers career-high seven points before the break while Proctor also had already eclipsed his career-high in steals and assists along with eight points as GC got their advantage north of 30 at times. Despite leaving nine points on the court on missed free throws, it did not matter as the Quakers matched their largest halftime lead of the season, taking a 60-32 advantage into the locker room.
The second half never got remotely competitive as the lead never dipped under 25 while it maxed out at 40 on a couple of occasions. Unloading their bench early, Guilford got to enjoy their less-frequent contributors making an impact. Among them were
Landon Francis (Duke Center, Pa.) and
Tripp McMillen (Dobson, N.C.) who surpassed their career-highs for points in their young careers, with six and eight respectively. By the time the clock hit zeros, the Quakers had completed the wire-to-wire victory, their largest win over BC ever, with the score finalized at 108-72.
Guilford returns to Ragan-Brown on Wednesday, January 21 for the battle of Route 29, clashing with their closest ODAC rival Averett University tipping off at 7:00 PM.
#GoQuakes
