"Men's Basketball Release (2005-06) - Strong Helps Guilford Past Roanoke, 71-53" - Guilford College

 

      SALEM, VA (1/11/06) -- The Roanoke College men's basketball team suffered its third loss in the last four games, falling at home to the Quakers of Guilford College 71-53 Wednesday evening. The Maroons fall to 8-5 on the season and 2-4 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) while the Quakers, who snap a seven-game losing streak with the win, improve to 5-8 overall and 3-3 league play. The Quakers also snap a three-game losing streak in the series with Roanoke.

Aside from a brief 2-2 score and a short 4-4 score early in the game, Guilford led throughout the 40 minutes of action. With the score even at four, the Quakers went on a 7-0 run to take an 11-4 lead with 16:27 left in the contest. Thomas Burge drained a three-pointer and Eric Belkoski converted a layup to cap the run by Guilford. After Roanoke's Jared Butler trimmed the Guilford lead to three with back-to-back buckets in the paint, the Quaker lead quickly jumped out to eight points. George Neville scored three straight points for GC to get the lead up to eight. The Maroons would not get any closer than four points the rest of the way.

Up by seven points with 4:28 left in the first half, the Quakers scored eight straight points and with just 2:09 left in the first 20 minutes took a 33-18 lead. The Maroons were able to cut that lead to 12 at the break. The Quakers shot 50 percent from the floor in the first half and held the Maroons to just 30 percent on 8-of-26 shooting.

The second half saw the Maroons able to trim the Guilford lead to single digits just twice, both times down to nine points. Tee Jackson scored on a layup with 9:29 left to make the score 49-40 and moments later Josh LaPorte scored with 8:45 left, his first basket of the night, to make the scored 51-42. An LT Lockett layup on the next Guilford possession put the lead back into double-digits, where it would stay.

Guilford's Ben Strong had a game-high 26 points, going 10-for-13 from the field. He also added six rebounds and a block. Burge was the only other Quaker in double-figures, scoring 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting. Guilford held a sizable 41-30 edge in the rebounding column and for the game held the Maroons to just 35 percent from the floor.

Jared Butler scored 12 first half points for the Maroons but failed to register a point in the second half. He finished the game as Roanoke's leading scorer, while Keith Carter finished the contest with eight points. The Maroons made just four of their 22 three-point attempts in the contest.

The Maroons play host to #11 Hampden-Sydney on Saturday afternoon in Salem, a 2:00 pm start, while Guilford hosts Eastern Mennonite.
 

-Story courtesy of Roanoke Sports Information