MISENHEIMER, N.C. – Scoring their most points in season-opener in 55 years, the Guilford College men's basketball team (1-0, 0-0 ODAC) blitzed Pfeiffer University (0-1, 0-0 USA South) in the second half to runaway with a 105-85 victory on Saturday night at the Merner Gymnasium.
After finishing as the seventh-highest scoring team in Division-III last winter and matching the NCAA-era program record with seven triple-digit scoring outputs, GC picked up right where they left off with 105 points, their most in a season-opener since netting 113 against Barber-Scotia College back in 1971-72.
As is always the case in a season opener, polish is needed, but if this is the baseline for the Quakers, good things are in store after they shot .494 from the field, a mark that would have finished as their second-best last season, while their 33 forced turnovers would have been tied for their season-high. Combine their shooting rate with 17 extra shot attempts thanks in large part to the turnovers, of which 21 were steals, and it accounts for the scoring margin. Guilford also shot .333 on their 24 three-point tries, but only went .536 from the line. Pfeiffer, on the other hand, shot .470 from the field, .357 from three on 14 tries and did good work at the line, making 18-of-20.
As he did 19 times last year,
Braylen Salters (Cleveland, Ohio) led the Quakers in scoring, netting a game-high 28 points, and while he made just 7-of-21 from the field, and 4-of-11 from three, he went 10-for-14 at the stripe and added a block and two steals.
Reynolds Escher (Atlanta, Ga.) was super-efficient, making 9-of-10 on his way to 19 tallies. Transfer
Oliver Jones (Middletown, Del.) impressed in his Guilford debut, recording career-highs across nearly his entire line, netting 17 points on 8-for-15 and adding game-highs of five assists and seven steals. Keeping GC afloat early,
Tripp McMillen (Dobson, N.C.) tallied a career-high 12 points and snared a team and career-high six rebounds and
Landon Francis (Duke Center, Pa.) made three of his four shots, all of them from distance, to contribute a career-high nine points and complete Guilford's starting five that pilled up 85 points, matching Pfeiffer's team output on their own.
Antoine Piper and Sunni Wrice led the hosts with 18 points each, albeit on sub-.500 field goal rates. Piper added four steals and Wrice had eight rebounds but also eight turnovers. Chris McDonald made 5-of-7 to round out double-digit scorers with a dozen, Mikayle Oliphant grabbed a game-high nine rebounds and Skyler Scull led the Falcons with three assists.
The first half was played extremely competitively, as Pfeiffer matched the Quaker pace, actually out-scoring GC on the fast break, 14-12 and shooting .516 in the stanza. Neither team got beyond two-possessions for the entirety of the half, with the maximum lead coming around the midway point when the Falcons completed an 11-2 run, turning a four-point deficit into a five-point lead, but Guilford clawed back into a see-saw affair, and at the conclusion of the half, Salters buried a pull-up jumper to take a 44-43 lead into the half.
A quick 4-2 edge out of the break granted Pfeiffer the lead momentarily out of the break, but a Jones layup, McMillen steal to an Escher two then a Francis triple constituted a 7-0 burst to claim a lead Guilford would never relinquish. They really opened it up as they approached the midway point, rattling off 13 of 15 points and seeing the lead swell from five-points to 16, and GC's advantage never dipped into single-digits again. In the end, they finished off their fourth win in their last-five season openers with a 105-85 win.
Guilford goes from a matchup with the reigning USA South Regular Season Champs, to the Tournament Champions from the same league as they play host to North Carolina Wesleyan University for their home opener on Wednesday, November 11, tipping off at 7:00 PM at Jack Jensen Court.
#GoQuakes
