GREENSBORO, N.C. – Braylen Salters (Cleveland, Ohio) netted the most-efficient 30 points of his career and
Oliver Jones (Middletown, Del.) plucked the second-most steals in a single game in the history of the Guilford College men's basketball team (3-0, 0-0 ODAC) headlining a 124-98, wire-to-wire victory over Southern Virginia University (1-1, 0-0 USA South) at Jack Jensen Court in the Ragan-Brown Field House on Saturday afternoon.
The Quakers eclipsed 100 points for the third-straight game, a feat they have achieved just twice before in their program history and not since February 17
th through 25
th in 1971, and doing so in their first-three games of any of their 122 prior seasons. Individually, Jones came away with nine steals, finishing two short of Tyler Dearman's '23, MISM '24 program-record of 11 steals in November of 2023 and instead settling for a tie with Trevor Mayo for second-most.
SVU was super-efficient shooting .558 from the field and connecting on 38 of their whopping 47 free throws but it did not make a difference. A lack of shooting threat, making just two threes all game and a 41-shot differential more than made up for the difference as GC shot .473 themselves and made 14 threes. Throw in 27 takeaways against 11 of their own, leading to a 44-13 in points off turnovers, plus 29 offensive rebounds against 28 on the same end by the guests leading to a 46-39 edge in rebounding factored into the massive scoring differential.
Salters was unbelievable to lead the Quaker offense. He shot .706, a career-best for him in a game in which he had double-digit shot attempts, by making 12 of his 17 shots and 4-of-7 from three to dump in a game-high 31 points. Jones followed with 21 of his own on 9-for-17 adding his nine thefts. Ten of
Tyson Garner's (Cleveland, Ohio) career-high 13 points came from the line while
Reynolds Escher (Atlanta, Ga.) and
Ryder Randolph (Fuquay-Varina, N.C.) tallied 11 apiece. Both had a tandem of steals while Escher added a game-high five assists and Randolph controlled a game-high seven rebounds.
Cooper Kent (Galion, Ohio) also stood out in his Guilford debut, making 3-of-6, all from distance, to tally nine points.
Living at the line, Landon Catlett and Nick Holland were the top scorers for Southern Virginia. Catlett made 7-of-9 from the field and 10-of-11 from the line to score a team-high 24 points while 16 of Holland's 22 tallies were at the charity stripe. They lacked help though, as Catlett finished tied with Abe Connolly with a team-leading six rebounds and Holland paced the guests with four assists while no other Knight netted double-digits.
This one would not stay competitive for too long. The adversaries alternated the first-four baskets before a Jones three gave Guilford a lead they would never relinquish at the 17:38 mark to spark a 10-2 stretch. They got their lead beyond two-possessions for good just-over five minutes in, their lead to double-digits for all-but eight seconds a tick over six minutes in. Ending the half on an 11-4 burst including a buzzer-beating wing three from Salters lifted their lead to 67-48 at the half after making 7-of-16 from deep in the first frame.
Escher opened the second half with a layup getting the lead into the 20's, and it never got back into the teens, peaking at a season-high 36 a couple of times before GC called off the dogs. The second half was instead highlighted by the collegiate debuts of
Zeke Garris (Asheville, N.C.) and
Sean Smith (Manning, S.C.) and the first college points for
Alphonso Hopkins (Gibsonville, N.C.).
The annual First Horizon Coliseum clash is next on the horizon for the Quakers who head across town for the neutral site matchup with Greensboro College on Wednesday, November 18 tipping off at 7:30 PM.
#GoQuakes
