By Scott DeWeerd, '15
The Albion College men's basketball team dominated its home opener against Earlham College Saturday afternoon, winning 96-43. The Britons never trailed and led by 58 points at one point in the second half.
Carter Elliott was instrumental in Albion's game-plan early on — the senior center either scored or assisted on 18 of Albion's 22 points to open the game. Elliott finished with 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting while adding five rebounds and four assists in just 15 minutes.
"Our goal is to get 20 touches in the post per game," Head Coach Jody May said. "Our offense is best when we're playing inside-out. That opens things up for the rest of the players."
Junior forward Jordan Herron chipped in with 14 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists in 22 minutes. Junior guard Dakota Kazen knocked down two of his three shots from three-point range and finished with 11 points.
The major story of the game for Albion was ball control and movement. The Britons had 19 assists to just four turnovers.
"One major adjustment we made to the offense this year is getting the ball reversed," said May. "Movement is a point of emphasis. We have a lot of unselfish guys who share the ball and look for each other. They don't care who scores, they just want to win."
On the other end, Albion forced Earlham into 18 turnovers and just 17-of-47 shooting from the field.
"Defense is a staple," said May. "We don't want to give up any lay-ups and we want to contest everything."
Albion also showed signs of improvement on the boards from last year's unit. The Britons out-rebounded Earlham 42 to 25.
First-year student-athletes Robert Ryan and Corey Wheeler gave Albion fans reason to be excited for the next few years of Briton basketball, contributing 12 and 10 points, respectively. Ryan added four rebounds and four assists.
May noted that his staff has an interesting predicament saying, "A huge challenge for the coaches this year is that we have a lot of experienced players, but we also have a lot of talented freshmen."
There are only so many minutes in a game, and May is going to have to figure out who gets them.
"Give a lot of credit to our veterans," he added. "They're doing a great job helping the young guys out."
The Britons head to Big Rapids next Saturday night for a 7 o'clock meeting with Ferris State.