GREENSBORO, N.C. – Caleb Furr (Warrenton, Va.) led a trio of crucial reserve contributors and Gabe Proctor (Apex, N.C.) maintained his high-level of recent play, notching a double-double for the nationally receiving-votes Guilford College men's basketball team, as they opened the Springhill Suites Guilford College Holiday Classic with a 90-68 victory over the University of the South (Sewanee) on Sunday evening on Jack Jensen Court inside the Ragan-Brown FieldHouse.
The Quakers win their fourth-straight contest to improve to 8-2 overall on the season, and 20-3 all-time in the Holiday Classic and other, adjacently timed events in which they have hosted. The Tigers, meanwhile, are dropped to the .500 mark at 5-5.
GC got the job done in a big way on both ends of the floor. Offensively, they scored 90-or-more points for the third time this season, a threshold the only eclipsed four times in the past four seasons combined, adding up to their most such scoring showings since the 2019-20 season. Additionally, all-three 90-point outbursts have come in their last six games, the most frequent instance of such performances since they opened the 2017-18 season with four games scoring 90-or-more in their first six contests of that campaign. On the less glamorous end, the Quakers contained Division-III's fifth-ranked scoring offense to a season-low of 68 points by generally just controlling the tempo and not allowing the high-paced Tigers to get out and run often.
The hosts shot .472 on the night overall, and while they took a season-high 37 threes, they also made a season-best 15 of them in the game, good for a .405 mark. Sewanee mustered just a .379 shooting percentage and .240 from range. Guilford also controlled a season-high 46 caroms as a collective, including 15 on the offensive end, and while it was a really clean game played from both sides, with only 13 combined turnovers, five by the Quakers, GC capitalized on them with a 14-4 edge on points off takeaways.
The evening's biggest advantage, however, was off the bench, as the second-unit of Quakers proved critical, scoring a season-high 40 points on the night, led by the efforts of Furr. He led GC by matching his career-high in points, with 17, as well as field goal and three-point makes, finishing 6-of-11 overall and 4-of-6 from range. Fellow transfers, Chase Ellis (Douglasville, Ga.) made four of his five shots to finish with 11 points and Bobby Samples (Brighton, Mich.) contributed eight points on 3-for-5 shooting. That is not to say the Guilford starting-five was ineffective, quite the contrary in fact, Gabe Proctor continued his brilliant stretch of play, posting his fourth-straight double-digit scoring output with 16 points adding career-highs for rebounds, with 15, and offensive rebounds, with five, leading all players in both categories in his second double-double in the last three games. Nick Farrar (Apex, N.C.) finished just one board short of his own double-double with ten points and nine rebounds while Dawson Edwards (Durham, N.C.) matched his career-high with 11 points on 4-of-5, cashing in all three of his attempts from range. Throw in a game-high five assists by Luke Proctor (Apex, N.C.) and seven points plus two steals and two blocks from Caleb Farrish (McLeansville, N.C.) and Guilford got a very well-rounded performance from their top-eight on this night.
Russ Marr led the Tigers with a game-high 19 points although he shot just 6-for-16 from the field and missed all five three-point attempts. He was even with Luka Avaliani to lead the guests in rebounding with seven apiece with the latter also leading Sewanee with three helpers on top of his eight points. Outside of Marr, only Reid Carrier reached double-figures with 11 in reserve with Fletcher Bigham's eight points on just 3-of-12 standing out.
Both offenses were clicking out of the gates, exploding out to a 10-9 score in favor of GC following a Gabe Proctor trey just three and a half minutes in. Things eased up some with Edwards hitting a turnaround jumper and then Carrier responding with a three and Marr making a two, putting the guests up 14-12 at the under-14 media timeout.
Ellis came out of the break by tying things with a steal-to-score before the adversaries split the following ten points leveling things at 19 before Guilford made their run. Farrar and Samples each contributed five points in a 10-3 stretch into the under-seven, then they piled on five more directly out of the break to make their edge double-digits, 34-22. The lead stayed in that 10-to-13-point range for a spell then a couple of Graham Smith free throws got the score back to single-digits, albeit temporarily, at the 2:40 mark. From there, Furr got two, Proctor hit from distance and layups from Ellis, Kody Clayton (Cary, N.C.), and Farrish closed out the half on an 11-1 burst as they good guys suddenly had a 50-31 lead at the break.
Gabe Proctor led all players with 13 points in the opening stanza as Guilford shot .513 in the half to open up the big advantage.
The home team scored the first seven out of the locker rooms, completing run of 13-unanswered spanning each side of halftime, getting the lead into the 20's and that is where it would remain for almost the entirety of the second half. Sewanee got the deficit into the teens on three occasions, but never any closer than 18 and while GC was wary of the high-powered Tigers' offense, keeping their starters on the floor longer than they likely normally would with a 20-point advantage, they maintained the lead that peaked at 28 after a Furr three-point make around the 12:30 mark.
Both squads emptied their benches late with the big highlight of the later stages of the game coming when Guilford salvaged a broken possession with Jonah Ridgill (Greensboro, N.C.) netting his first collegiate points off a slick feed from CJ Cormack (Greensboro, N.C.) in the game's final minute, bringing the score to the final tallies of 90-68.
Furr caught fire, making a quartet of threes in the second stanza on his way to 12 points. Sewanee got plenty of chances to make things interesting with the clock stopped, making 12 of their 17 free throws in the half, but it was too little, too late.
Guilford closes out the Springhill Suites Holiday Classic tomorrow evening when they will host Belhaven University with tipoff scheduled for 4:00 PM.
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