GREENSBORO, N.C. – At the end of a snowy 24-hours outside Jack Jensen Court in the Ragan-Brown FieldHouse, the nationally receiving-votes Guilford College men's basketball team did their best snowplow impression, leading by 30 at the half, and finishing with a 70-39 win over Eastern Mennonite University on Saturday afternoon.
The win is GC's 15th-straight over the Royals, making it their longest active winning streak against any opponent and ties Randolph-Macon's run of 15-consecutive wins over Bridgewater for the second-longest streak in the conference. It is also their fifth-straight conference victory since falling in their ODAC opener as they improve to 5-1 in league play and 11-3 overall. EMU, on the other hand, drops their eighth-in-a-row, plummeting to 3-10, and winless in five chances against conference competition.
The Quakers dominated from the jump, exploding out to a 42-12 lead through 20 minutes and sustaining that throughout the second half. The 39 points permitted is the lowest total that both EMU has scored and GC has allowed all season, extending Guilford's streak of games holding the opposition to their worst or second-worst scoring output on the campaign to five-straight games. The Royals were particularly futile from distance where they hit just one of the 27 threes they jacked up on the day. Even more jarring is that 19 of the guest's 39 points came on the fast break meaning they scored just 20 points in the standard, half-court offense and as a result, GC collected a season-high 47 rebounds.
Nick Farrar (Apex, N.C.) was the headliner for the Quakers, dropping a game-leading 22 points and making 9-of-15 from the field. Caleb Furr (Warrenton, Va.) was the only other GC player to reach double-digits with 13 by making all four of his shot attempts. Chase Ellis (Douglasville, Ga.) was also superb in reserve, scoring nine points on 3-for-4 shooting. The rest of the scoring was just en masse, with nine other players recording a point on the scoresheet. Luke Proctor (Apex, N.C.) lead all players with nine rebounds while also dishing three assists, tied with Dawson Edwards (Durham, N.C.) as the game leader.
Aaron Brooks was the lone Royal to score double-digits, finishing with 11 points and two helpers, tied for a team-high with Gabriel Campbell. Campbell was also EMU's leading rebounder with six. Kaleb Torrence finished as their second-leading scorer with six points on just 2-of-10 from the field.
Guilford set the tone early as the game opened with traded turnovers before Farrar converted an and-one to open the scoring. Brooks got the Royals on the board with a steal-to-score but then it became a landslide. Ten-straight by GC with Farrar and Caleb Farrish (McLeansville, N.C.) splitting scoring duties. EMU answered with a 4-0 mini-run, but then another seven in-a-row got the lead to double-digits again at just the 11:40 mark, where it would remain the rest of the way.
A Payton Lewis layup at 9:49 made the score 20-8, but EMU would score just two more field goals for the remainder of the half during which they made just 6-of-24 and none of their 12 three-point attempts. The Quakers took advantage by pilling it on with 14-unanswered points, good for their longest scoring run without a blemish thus far this season. In that span, Farrar put the finishing touches on his ten-point first half and GC knocked down three of their eight first-half makes from distance including a nasty step-back from straight-away by Furr that had the defender on the hardwood. Eastern Mennonite got a couple makes in the final three minutes, but were still out-scored 8-4 as GC staked themselves to a 42-12 advantage at the midway-point, good for their largest halftime advantage of the campaign thus far and restricting the opposition to a season-low for points in any half this season.
H1, 5:36 | ������#GoQuakes pic.twitter.com/SjnZSjuY58
— Guilford College Men's Basketball (@GuilfordMBB) January 11, 2025
With the game well in-hand, Guilford maintained their lead in the second half with the Royals only able to get the deficit below 30 twice, and got no closer than within 28. GC fed Farrar out of the break with the senior scoring their first six points of the stanza. Furr got the next five for the hosts before another six for Farrar prior to the Quakers putting in their reserves by the six-minute mark. The remainder of the game was eventful, if somewhat sloppy, as the end of the bench got plenty of action. The highlight was when Rival Axselle (Mechanicsville, Va.) got a chase-down block, sending the ball careening of the backboard and eventually leading to a Jalen Walker (Durham, N.C.) jam on the other end to finish the fast break for his first collegiate points. Cameron Taylor (Mount Airy, N.C.) and Troy Giles (Smithfield, Va.) also each scored their first career points, the former by knocking down a three and the later by splitting a pair of free throws. These plays helped build Guilford's lead out to a season-high of 39 at the 1:55 mark before the score finalized at 70-39.
H2, 4:29 | The reserves making the most of their time!
— Guilford College Men's Basketball (@GuilfordMBB) January 11, 2025
Rival with the block and Jalen with the �� for his first collegiate points!#GoQuakes pic.twitter.com/XCVtSYFDeS
The Quakers are on their home floor again on Wednesday evening, hosting nationally receiving votes Virginia Wesleyan University for a big-time ODAC matchup January 15th with tipoff at 7:30 PM.
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