It didn't take long for the Wilmington College men's basketball team to flex their collective muscle and run previously unbeaten Muskingum out of the Fred Raizk Arena, literally.
Wilmington scored the first eight points of the contest and recorded 33 fast-break points as the Fightin' Quakers knocked off MC, 88-51, Wednesday in the Ohio Athletic Conference opener for both teams.
"Our guys were really ready to play," said Wilmington head coach K.C. Hunt. "They were anxious to get back on the court after Sunday's debacle, and our guys kind of punched them in the mouth early and never looked back. When you come out and you share the ball because we made 'one mores' and extra passes, it's a fun team to watch."
The Fightin' Quakers did an excellent job of taking care and sharing the basketball. They assisted on 17 of the 35 baskets and committed just 14 turnovers, nine of which came in the last eight minutes of the game.
"I think the great thing about this group is that they are really sharing the ball," said Hunt. "You look up every night and we have 16, 17, 18 assists, and that was again the case tonight. I was really proud of how we played from the standpoint of unselfish play."
While it was the glitz and glamour of the offense that was fun to watch, the grittiness of the defense proved too much for the Muskies to handle. Muskingum entered the game with four players averaging double figures, including two with 20 points each. None of them came close to their scoring averages.
The duo of Dave Brown and Christian Keller, which averaged 42.4 points between them, were held to 22 points combined on 6-of-22 shooting.
"Those two guys are really good players," said Hunt. "It was one of those nights where they really didn't have it. Our intensity level and defensive execution took them out of what they really wanted to do. I thought we did a really good job of identifying tendencies from this basketball team.We really tried to take away their strengths. It was all about our kids listening and executing on the defensive end."
Once Wilmington pushed the lead to double digits midway through the first half, the Muskies weren't able to get back to within breathing distance as 10 became 20 and 20 became 30. Eventually the bulge grew to as much as 47 with 8:52 remaining when WC entered all of its reserves.
Junior R.J. Leppert (Liberty Township, OH/Lakota East) led the team with 15 points on 6-of-6 shooting. Senior Malcolm Heard (Wilmington, OH/Wilmington) came out rebound shy of a double-double with 13 points and nine boards, while junior Dwight Johnson (Dayton, OH/Jefferson) added 13 points and four assists.
The fourth member of the double figure quartet was senior Ben McGriff (Beavercreek, OH/Beavercreek), who tied a career-high with 10 points. Junior Klarke Ransome (Richwood, OH/North Union) added four assists.
Senior Christian Patterson (Cincinnati, OH/Norwood) established a new career-high with three blocks, and played his most effective minutes of season with five points and five rebounds.
"We've been really talking to Christian about bringing energy, defending and rebounding, and he has really taken that to heart," said Hunt. "I thought he gave a really good performance tonight."
Wilmington (3-2 overall, 1-0 OAC) resumes OAC action 3 p.m. Saturday at Marietta.