GREENSBORO, N.C. – Seizing the lead just 18 seconds in, the Guilford College men's basketball team (4-3, 0-0 ODAC) never relinquished the lead, nor relented in a 122-88 mauling of Greensboro College (2-4, 0-0 USA South) in their annual clash at the First Horizon Coliseum on Monday night.
The Quakers ushed in the holiday season in the grandest of styles, besting their pre-Thanksgiving scoring output by a point on the back of a season-high 15 made threes in addition to a 35-for-43 showing at the line, both also eclipsing their season-best. The Pride did actually outshoot their crosstown foes, .468 to .419 but it did not matter when taking 24 fewer attempts while turnovers were the name of the game, with Greensboro committing 33 leading to 39 points off them.
Braylen Salters (Cleveland, Ohio) finished as the game's leading scorer, netting 22 first-half points in his second-straight standout first half, but Guilford spread the wealth on this night.
Gabe Proctor (Apex, N.C.) pitched in 18, dropping his countdown to 1,000 career points into double-digits.
Reynolds Escher (Atlanta, Ga.) made 7-of-8 from the field to net 19 points and
Magnus Swinger (Concord, N.C.) pitched in a career-high 16, providing big boosts off the bench as GC benefitted from a season-high 59 points from their second unit.
Rival Axselle (Mechanicsville, Va.) added a dozen,
Dawson Edwards (Durham, N.C.) connected on 4-of-5 to finish with 10 tallies and while he only scored one point,
Kody Clayton (Cary, N.C.) snared eight steals, the most by a Quaker since Tyler Dearman '23, MISM '24 had a program-record 11 on opening night against Methodist back in 2023. Getting big minutes,
Landon Francis (Duke Center, Pa.) led the team in assists, with four, and
Christian Bacon (Lithia Springs, Ga.) paced the squad in rebounds, with five.
Greensboro was led by the efforts of DJ Jackson and Mike Downing who netted 16 each, albeit with five and six turnovers respectively. Jalen Thorns led all players with five assists and seven rebounds on the night while adding nine in the scoring column. The Quakers also restricted freshman phenom, Quamir Ingram, who was fresh off a 48-point explosion last week, to 0-for-6 shooting and 0 points.
The Pride struggled against Guilford's press from the opening tip, which was won by the Quakers. Axselle made a three on their first trip down and it was just a foreshadowing of what was to come. On consecutive trips, Salters split a pair at the line, the first thanks to a shooting foul then the second from a technical violation on Greensboro, as Guilford mounted a 5-0 lead before the Pride mustered a shot, a made layup by Will Gray. Edwards hit consecutive twos then Salters from range and the Quaker advantage had swelled to double-digits before the under-16 media timeout.
Whittling their deficit back to single-digits for a while, a Salters and-one at the 13:44 mark made the lead exceed 10 for good and the onslaught was on. Salters poured in all of his 22 in the opening stanza while Edwards, Proctor, and Swinger all joined him in double-digits in the half that saw Guilford turn an 18-7 takeaways advantage to a 25-2 lead in points off turnovers. In the process, they mounted a 65-41 lead at the break, their largest of the season at the half thus far.
With the Quakers top flight seeing just a handful of minutes, the second half saw plenty of action from the end of the Guilford bench as the game was well in-hand thanks to the lead never getting narrower than 23. The highlights included career-highs of five points each from
Jalen Walker (Durham, N.C.) and
Jackson Fannon (Denver, N.C.), as well as the first collegiate points from
Dimitris Olympios (Athens, Greece), all driving towards the 122-88 conclusion.
Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) action awaits next for Guilford, as they host No. 13 Roanoke College inside the Ragan-Brown FieldHouse on Wednesday evening in an ODAC Championship rematch, tipping off at 5:00 PM.
#GoQuakes
