BRUNSWICK, ME. – The Wesleyan men's basketball team opened NESCAC play Friday night with a decisive 81-65 victory over Bowdoin on the road. The Cardinals trailed 32-26 at the half, before exploding for 55 2^nd half points to complete the come from behind victory. The Cardinals have now won five in a row, improving to 7-5 (1-0 NESCAC). Bowdoin drops their first NESCAC contest of the year falling to 6-7 (0-1 NESCAC).

The Cardinals were paced by the trio of Preston Maccoux '23, Nicky Johnson '25, and Gabe Ravetz '23 who combined to tie the entire Bowdoin team with 65 points. Maccoux's return from injury has been vital to the Cardinals' recent winning streak, and he came through again Friday evening with a career-high 26 points (7/15 FG, 3/8 3pt) to go with a team-leading four assists. He also was impressive at the charity stripe, knocking down nine of his 11 attempts. Johnson has done a bit of everything for the Cardinals and showed that again Friday, pouring in 21 points on 8/16 shooting to go along with seven boards and two steals. Ravetz has been the three-point marksman for the Cardinals, and knocked down three more of the them against the Polar Bears to reach 18 points (7-12 FG, 3/7 3pt) on the night.

The first half was an offensive struggle for the Cardinals, who managed only 26 points on 34.3% shooting, but got to the half only trailing by six to Bowdoin. The Polar Bears jumped on the Cardinals early in their home gym, getting out to a 7-0 lead thanks to a pair of missed layups and turnovers by Wesleyan. The Cards came storming back to tie the game at 10 on a Johnson driving layup seven minutes in.

The Polar Bears went on another run midway through the half to extend their lead back up to seven behind a pair of layups and a Michael Simonds short jumper. Bowdoin kept the pressure on as the Cardinals went cold from the field, pushing their lead to double figures at 12. Johnson and Ravetz hit back-to-back triple to end the half and the Cards had the deficit down to six going into the break.

After a scoreless first half, Maccoux exploded for all 26 of his points in the 2^nd half. He began the period with eight straight points, which was followed by a Johnson fastbreak layup to tie the game forcing a Polar Bears' timeout. After the timeout the Cardinals took their first lead of the contest on a Ravetz layup and never looked back.

They hung on to the lead from that point on, pouring in 55 second half points to put the Polar Bears away. By the midway point of the second half the Cardinals had extended their lead to nine on a Shackylle Dezonie '23 layup and it looked like they were going to pull away. The Polar Bears and James McGown had one more run in them as his triple trimmed the lead back to five. That would be the closest it would get, as over the final 5:30 the Cardinals would go on a 15-6 run to put the Polar Bears away and claim their first NESCAC victory of 2023.

Wesleyan shot 59.2% from the field in the second half, knocking down 6/12 triples in the process. The Cardinals defense held the Polar Bears to 38% shooting in the final 20 minutes to secure the win. Bowdoin was led by James McGowin who scored 23 points and brought down five boards.

Wesleyan returns to the hardwood Saturday the 7th where they will complete their Maine road trip with a trip to Waterville for a date with Colby (12-2).