GREENSBORO, N.C. – Catching fire in the game's final eight minutes, Luke Proctor (Apex, N.C.) and the nationally receiving votes Guilford College men's basketball team (17-5, 9-3 ODAC) created distance late, besting Washington & Lee University (6-15, 4-8 ODAC), 67-52, in Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) play at Jack Jensen Court in the Ragan-Brown FieldHouse on Saturday afternoon.
The Quakers dominated inside with a 28-18 advantage in the paint, shooting .429 from the field and .321 from deep in the win. For the Generals, they made their shots at a .370 rate, going 7-of-26 from three.
Proctor poured in career-high 20 points on the night, matching his career-best for three-point makes with five and finishing 6-of-9 from the field overall. Gabe Proctor (Apex, N.C.) netted 14 as well with Nick Farrar (Apex, N.C.) matching his scoring output on a super-efficient 7-for-9 shooting. Farrar was tied for the team-high with seven rebounds, equal to the total that Caleb Farrish (McLeansville, N.C.) had to lead the team with the later also leading GC in assists with three, tied for his career-best.
Connor Amorosi paced all players with 22 points but for the second time this season, GC limited W&L to just one player in double-digits as Colin Ryan was their second-leading scorer with seven. Amorosi and Ryan were equal for the team-high with three assists apiece with the former adding seven rebounds, even with Jackson Ransom for the team-lead.
The Generals exploded to score seven of the game's initial nine points in this one, eventually extending their lead to six at 15-9 by making a trio of threes entering the first media timeout. A couple treys by Gabe Proctor and Bobby Samples (Brighton, Mich.) got the Quakers even but the W&L shooting continued to give GC some trouble, as they made the score 23-19 at the under-seven break. Guilford would manage to scrape together a 9-3 stretch to close the half with the lead, 30-26, but it remained anyone's ballgame.
Four points each by Luke Proctor, Farrar, and W&L's Ryan granted the Quakers some breathing room, but the Generals refused to go away, scoring eight of the ensuing nine points. A second-chance hoop by Dawson Edwards (Durham, N.C.) and then a steal-to-score by Gabe Proctor made it 43-38 at the final media timeout with 11 minutes to play.
Proctor picked off an Amorosi pass for his second-straight fastbreak hoop but then a 9-2 uprising by the guests brought the score even with eight minutes left. Luke Proctor then decided that enough was enough, scoring 11 unanswered by himself with a trio of makes from distance including a ridiculous step-back to cap his burst. Gabe Proctor made a three before W&L finally halted the 14-0 run. Things would never get back to single-digits with Edwards and both Proctor's combining to go 6-of-6 from the line the rest of the way, finalizing the score at 67-52.
Guilford hits the road next to clash with No. 5 nationally ranked Hampden-Sydney College on Wednesday, February 8th at 7:00 PM.
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