The Centre men's basketball team pulled away late to give head coach Greg Mason his 300th career win in a 74-61 victory over Asbury on Tuesday in Alumni Gymnasium.
With the win, Mason improves his career record to 300-111 early into his 16th season, and his winning percentage of .730 ranks in the top 10 of Division III coaches.
Coming into the game as reigning Southern Athletic Association Player of the Week and off a career-high 38-point effort, Josh Karsner (Frankfort, Ky.) led the Colonels again with 27 points, while Blake Scinta (Louisville, Ky.) added 18. Tyler Smith led Asbury with 12 points, with Jordan Gilbert chipping in 11.
It was a back and forth game most of the way with six ties, 16 lead changes, and neither team holding a lead of more than six points until Centre finally pulled away with a 20-2 run. The Eagles led as late as the 12:22 mark in the second half, and were still within two points at 53-51 with just over nine minutes to play when Centre made its move.
Bryan Repishti (Louisville, Ky.) started the surge with a 3-pointer at the 9:04 mark, while Karsner connected twice from outside and scored 10 points in the run. By the time the dust had settled, Centre had held Asbury without a field goal for more than eight minutes, and the Colonels had pushed the lead out to 73-53 with just 1:11 to play.
After Centre scored the first six points of the game, Asbury stormed back on an 11-2 run and led for much of the first half. The Eagles reached their biggest lead of the game at six points on three separate occasions in the first half, including a 38-32 halftime lead. Centre scored the first six points of the second half, and the game would go back and forth until the Colonels' final run.
Centre shot a blistering 59.6 percent (28-of-47) overall and 52.6 percent (10-of-19) from 3-point range as a team while holding Asbury to 36.5 percent (23-of-63) from the field and 25 percent (5-of-20) from outside. The Colonels also controlled the boards 39-29, but despite all the other numbers in Centre's favor, the Eagles were able to stay close by turning the ball over just eight times to Centre's 22.
With the win, Centre improves to 6-0 while Asbury drops to 7-3. The Colonels next travel to Atlanta for the weekend, where they will take on Huntingdon at 5 p.m. on Friday and MacMurray at 3 p.m. on Saturday in the Oglethorpe Classic.