Written by: Bryce Johnson, Director of Athletic Communications
GREENSBORO, N.C. – Playing in front to frenzied faithful around Jack Jensen Court for the first time for a regular season contest this season, the No. 17 nationally ranked Guilford College men's basketball team blitzed North Carolina Wesleyan University to the tune of 55 points in the second half, running away with a home-opening victory, and the 400th of Tom Palombo's tenure with GC, 87-59 on Wednesday night.
Already the winningest coach in Quakers' history after surpassing Jack Jensen last winter, he ups his career victories total to a nice, round number, and the team ups their early-season record to 2-0. For the Battling Bishops, they drop their second-straight to a nationally ranked foe to fall to 1-2.
GC finished with a 38-16 advantage in the paint, doing most of their damage in the second half of play with a 30-8 edge and it showed in their shooting percentages as their consistent looks near the rim resulted in a .554 field goal percentage on the night overall. They virtually could not miss in the second half of play too, making 21-of-30 from the field including six of their 11 attempts from range. For N.C. Wesleyan, their strong three-point shooting in the first half gave way to a difficult second from distance making just 2-of-9 as the Quakers pulled away.
Gabe Proctor (Apex, N.C.) finished as GC's leading scorer with 16 points on the night, tied for the game-high, making 6-of-9 and 3-of-5 from deep. Nick Farrar (Apex, N.C.) pitched in 14 points although he needed 13 shots to get there on this evening. Caleb Farrish (McLeansville, N.C.) and Chase Ellis (Douglasville, Ga.) netted a baker's dozen each with Farrish connecting on his shots at a .571/.600/1.000 line and Ellis missing just two shots overall, one of his five shots from the field and one of his six attempts from the stripe, while adding a team-leading three assists. Guilford crashed the glass as a collective on their way to a 39-27 edge in rebounding, with Ellis, Farrar, Luke Proctor (Apex, N.C.), and Dawson Edwards (Durham, N.C.) all securing five caroms.
For the visitors, James Jones led the way with 16 points in reserve going 6-for-12 from the field and 4-of-8 from distance. Marquis Eskew contributed 15 points on 6-of-11 as well, but they got little help as the rest of the Battling Bishops recorded just 28 points as a whole on 9-of-30 shooting. Ky'ron Kelly grabbed a game-best nine rebounds and Khalid Chavis-Hinds had three assists and two steals, both leading his squad and tied for the game-high.
The contest was a back-and-forth affair in the early going, with the guests scoring the first four, GC countering with four of their own, then a run of 16-straight scoring plays by the two sides that resulted in a tie or a lead change. This run of punch-counterpunch basketball spanned a majority of the half as over the first 13 minutes of play neither team got beyond a one-possession advantage with the exception of the NCWU's consecutive scores to open the game. Finally, in the 14th minute of action, Jones buried back-to-back treys leading straight into the under-seven media timeout.
Out of the break, Chavis-Hinds split a pair at the line and then Kelly slammed home two more to complete a 9-0 stretch that would finish as the longest by either side in the game and opening up the largest advantage that North Carolina Wesleyan would possess on the night at 29-21. Each side got singular free throws before the Quakers made a run. Gabe Proctor got it going with a three although a Chavis-Hinds pull-up got two back. Farrar got a second-chance three directly off the inbound pass with a trip by a Battling Bishop during the scrap for the rebound extending the possession. Ellis drew a foul on a third-chance shot, made both his free throws. Farrish capped the spurt and the half with yet another second-chance basket, beating the buzzer with a layup sending the teams into the locker room, locked up at 32-all.
The second half opened looking like almost the entire first half of play with four-straight scoring plays with a lead-change, but then Guilford turned it on and turned it on in a big way. With 17:51 to play, Luke Proctor converted the hoop and the harm, thrusting the Quakers in front and they would never trail again. Ellis made a basket at the rim and Proctor cashed in a three but Jones countered with a triple for the guests. Ellis followed by splitting two at the line and Rival Axselle (Mechanicsville, N.C.) got three the old-fashioned way, but another Jones three-ball curbed the spell. Ellis and Eskew got a bucket each on either side of the under-14 media timeout before a deep Proctor three and a fadeaway basket in the lane made the lead ten.
The advantage would flirt in-and-out of double-digits until the ten-minute mark when Proctor made an and-one then another layup with Ellis getting two of his own a possession later and it never really got within striking distance the rest of the way. Guilford did not have more than three-straight scoring plays at any point in the second half of play, just had a steady diet of sequences in which they got two or three against NCWU's one. The gradual build of their advantage paid off with a massive second half in which they scored 55 points, ultimately matching their highest scoring output from any game during the 2023-24 season, and completing the 87-59 victory.
The Quakers hit the road for a premier early-season Division-III men's basketball matchup, heading down to Atlanta, Georgia to clash with No. 8 nationally ranked Emory University on Saturday evening. Tip-off is set for 5:30 PM.
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