FERRUM, Va. – Holding Division-III Basketball's most-efficient offense to their second-worst showing of the season, the nationally receiving-votes Guilford College men's basketball team ushered in 2025 by outlasting Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) rival Ferrum College, 63-59, on Saturday afternoon at the Swartz Gymnasium.
GC opened the unofficial second half with a bounce-back victory, improving to 9-3 on the season and 3-1 in league action, sending the Panthers to the Division-II ranks by winning the final seven head-to-head matchups in the regular season. On the other side, FC drops just their third game thus far this year, albeit two against ODAC opponents, falling to 10-3, 2-2 against conference competition.
Guilford struggled shooting the ball on the day, connecting at just a .346 rate, however, they were strong from range, making 11-of-20 for a season-high .550 three-point shooting percentage while avenging some of their woes from the charity stripe connecting at a .762 clip and holding a 16-4 edge in points at the line. The top team in the nation in field goal percentage coming in, Ferrum was held to just .404 from the field, with that mark, as well as their points output, representing the second-lowest totals on the year for them.
Nick Farrar (Apex, N.C.) led the Quakers in scoring for the eighth time this season, finishing with a game-best 18 points to go with a team-leading seven rebounds, including three offensive. He made 6-of-14 from the field and 6-of-8 from the line while also sending back two blocks. Dawson Edwards (Durham, N.C.) joined him in double-figures with ten points, making half of his six shots and both of his three-pointers. Chase Ellis (Douglasville, Ga.) contributed ten points and Bobby Samples (Brighton, Mich.) pitched in nine in reserve, giving GC a 19-7 advantage in bench scoring. Guilford was only credited with seven assists on the day with Samples leading the team with two of them. Caleb Farrish (McLeansville, N.C.) took just two shots from the field, but nonetheless added seven points thanks to four free throw makes, adding five rebounds, three offensive, a steal, and a block.
Four Panthers scored double-digits and they were paced by 13 apiece from Charles Tart III and Sterling Charles. Tart III made 5-of-9 from the field and 3-of-4 from range as FC's most effective offensive option on the day. Charles required 14 shots to get to his 13 tallies although he grabbed four boards. Alfredo Abel-Rivera finished with his sixth double-double of the season, posting a dozen points and rebounds, leading all players in the later. He was also tied for the game-high with four assists with Zavier Measmer. Bryant Wall concluded the double-digit scorers with a near double-double on 11 points and eight caroms in addition to a game-high four blocks. Outside of their top-four scorers, however, FC got just ten points on 4-of-16 shooting, including Measmer going 1-of-8 in the game.
Guilford opened the scoring on the game's sixth possession with a Luke Proctor (Apex, N.C.) three before Farrar netted GC's next four albeit with a Tart III three splitting the difference. A couple FC free throws, an Edwards three, and a trey by Tae Allen brought the score to 10-8 at the first media break.
A couple possessions out of the timeout, the Panthers took their first, and what ended up as their only, lead of the game when Charles hit a three, but the edge would last just 58 seconds as a couple Farrar makes at the charity stripe at the 11:01 mark put Guilford back in the driver's seat. Three makes by Ellis at the line extended the lead to four, but then Wall got a jumper and a steal-to-slam on consecutive touches to level the tallies at 15. Two from Farrar and three from Samples gave the Quakers a lead they would never relinquish entering the under-seven media timeout. FC scored the first four points after the break, but GC got three points apiece from Farrar, Farrish, and Samples, closing the half on a 9-2 run to bring a 29-21 lead into the locker room.
Matching their lowest-scoring half of the season, Ferrum made just eight of their 28 shots in the first half, good for a meager .286 shooting percentage by the nation's most-efficient offense coming in. Guilford was not exactly lighting it up themselves, shooting just .346, however they did connect on five threes and got nine points off the bench against none for the Panthers to hold the lead halfway through.
The hosts opened the second half scoring five of the first six points, but Guilford countered with five-straight of their own, matching their largest lead to that point at 35-26. Abel-Rivera hit a two then the adversaries traded three-point possessions scored in differing fashion. Nonetheless, Ferrum's offense had awoken, making five of their first seven shots of the second stanza, but the Quakers were answering and a couple turnovers helped curb the momentum. From there, the Panthers kind of just hung around, keeping the game in that two-to-three possession range until the 10:30 mark. Abel-Rivera converted a tip-in on a second chance then Tart III scored two and Ashton Troutman made a second-chance bucket as all-of-a sudden, the deficit was cut to one. Ellis halted the run with a three but in a flurry of baskets, Troutman tallied two more and then Samples and Charles each connected from distance. Guilford still held the lead, 50-48, but the game had gotten really interesting with seven to play.
Farrish made four-consecutive free throws then Edwards tallied five points in-a-row, all of them off turnovers, as GC opened up their lead to a game-high 11 points with three-and-a-half remaining, however, they could not breathe easy yet. Just as quickly as the Quakers had extended the lead, the Panthers trimmed it again, countering Guilford's game-best 9-0 run, with a 9-0 stretch of their own getting five from Wall, one from Abel-Rivera, and Measmer's lone make from the field on a three-pointer cutting it to a two-point game. Unfortunately for the home team, there was under 30 seconds to play and as a result, they were forced to foul intentionally and when they did, Edwards calmed things down by converting both free throws. After a Panther miss, Farrar followed suit before Abel-Rivera made a second-chance layup to bring the final tallies to 63-59.
FC's offense was much more like their season's form in the second half, shooting .517, but they also committed six turnovers that GC turned into seven points. Guilford made six of their 11 threes and 10-of-13 from the free throw line while getting seven each from Edwards, Ellis, and Farrar to keep the Panthers at an arm's length in the win.
The Quakers return to Jack Jensen Court next for a primetime showdown when they host No. 7 Hampden-Sydney College on Wednesday, January 11 with tipoff set for 7:30 PM.
#GoQuakes