GREENSBORO, N.C. – Despite a huge second half and season-high from Ke Edwards (Hickory, N.C.), the Guilford College men's basketball team (9-8, 3-5 ODAC) came up short in a comeback bid, falling 104-97 to Shenandoah University (9-8, 2-6) on Jack Jensen Court in the Ragan-Brown FieldHouse Friday night.

Just a couple days after their top defensive showing of the season, the Quakers had no answers against ODAC's lowest scoring offense on this evening. They did check a lot of the boxes they strive to check in the game, forcing 23 turnovers with 19 steals leading to a 22-7 edge in points off them. They crashed the glass with 21 offensive boards leading to a 21-7 edge on second chances. And they took 28 extra shots on the night, but the Hornets were simply too efficient to overcome. When they got on the attack, SU's success rate was huge, shooting .544 overall, .433 from three, and .829 on a season-high 35 free throw attempts. GC's volume just could not keep up as they finished shooting .376 from the field, .290 from range, and .750 on 32 free throw tries.

Braylen Salters (Cleveland, Ohio) led Guilford with 26 points on the night, making 10 free throws and 7-of-18 from the field. Ke Edwards was terrific, scoring 15 of his 19 points in the second half, shooting 8-for-13 and adding five rebounds and three steals. Gabe Proctor (Apex, N.C.) continued to struggle shooting the ball, making just 5-of-22 overall and 4-for-16 from distance on his way to 16 tallies, though he also continued impacting the game in other ways with a contest-leading eight rebounds, five offensive, plus three steals, and tied for the team-high with three assists alongside Christian Bacon (Lithia Springs, Ga.). Dawson Edwards (Durham, N.C.) rounded out GC double-digit scorers with a dozen while Rival Axselle (Mechanicsville, Va.) did not get going offensively, but did pile up four steals and two blocks on the defensive end.

Dorian Davis lit it up with a game-high 30 points including going perfect on a dozen attempts at the line. Isaiah Lee set career-highs across the board, scoring 23 points on 7-of-10 including four threes and leading all players in assists with four. Ellis Wright tallied 19 points and was tied for the team-lead with seven caroms alongside Joseph Baldwin and Samuel Daily pitched in 15 for SU.

Guilford looked like they would run away with this one early, scoring 10 of the first 13 points, including four from Kody Clayton (Cary, N.C.), to open an early lead through the Hornets got five-straight after, getting back inside two possessions and that's where it remained. A couple possessions after the media break, Shenandoah netted six-straight on four points from Baldwin and a couple at the stripe by Davis, claiming the lead, and after a Tripp McMillen (Dodson, N.C.) second-chance hoop, a Baldwin jam on the break gave them their second and final lead of the half since GC answered with a 9-3 spurt. SU worked back, as jumping ahead to the six-minute mark, a couple John Allen free throws narrowed the deficit to one at 38-37, but the Quakers exploded. Pouring on 11-straight straddling the under-four, Guilford opened a 12-point cushion. To the Hornets' credit, they were undeterred, scoring 13 of the final 16 points of the half and after Simmons connected on a free throw with half a second remaining due to a Clayton foul roughly 60 feet from the basket while in the bonus, they got the score to 52-47 into the break.

The Hornets worked back to even entering the under-16 timeout though Reynolds Escher (Atlanta, Ga.) made a couple free throws after it to retake the lead. The ensuing inbound play would prove a critical one, as SU narrowly beat a potential five-second call with a timeout and Lee took advantage with a three on the Hornets trip down. His make spurred a stretch of six-straight offensive trips with a basket, including another trey from Lee and triples from both Daily and Wright. Salters hit a three early in the stretch, but SU racked up 13-consecutive tallies as even after GC got a stop, Daily made a two on their following trip before doing so again a few possessions later to get the lead to a game-high 12 with 8:46 remaining. Ke Edwards virtually singlehandedly willed the Quakers back into the game though, scoring 11 points in the final six and a half minutes and his three with 1:38 left levelled the score at 95. Lee split a pair at the stripe giving SU the lead but Salters flipped the score with a layup on the other end with 43 seconds remaining. But all the momentum GC gained in the comeback to retake the lead proved fleeting, as the hosts were hit with four-consecutive fouls, all on the floor although a couple were intentional, while their adversaries were working in the bonus, and the whistles took the air right out of Ragan-Brown. To their credit, the ODAC's worst free throw shooting team coming in was calm in collected, making all-eight of their chances to close out the 104-97 win.

Guilford hits the road for a few, first in Lynchburg, Va. for a matchup with the University of Lynchburg tipping off on Wednesday, January 28^th at 5:00 PM.

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