ANGOLA, Ind. – The Trine University men's basketball team began the 2022-23 season at home inside the MTI Center to take on the Manchester University Spartans. The Thunder were successful in defending their home floor, 78-67.
The win puts Trine in the win column at 1-0 and Manchester defaults to 0-1. A wide rebounding margin allowed for extra opportunities for the home team at 47-25. 15 times the Thunder were able to collect a rebound on the offensive end of the floor and two players finished in double figures: senior Brent Cox and junior Emmanuel Megnanglo. Each of them wrapped up the game with 11 boards.
"He works really hard," Coach Miller said of his senior Cox, especially. "This is a four-year work in progress for him. He has embraced the role he has on this team as a leader. We need him to do what he did tonight with 11 rebounds."
Cox was also 8-for-14 from the field and 4-for-7 from long range. He had a double-double with 24 points on his ledger. "Shots were definitely falling and we were doing our jobs on the defensive end, so that helps as well," he said after the final buzzer sounded.
Senior Connor Jones could not have asked for a better start to his season. Jones set up his teammate Megnanglo for a two-handed dunk on the team's first offensive possession and had back-to-back drawn charges on the defensive end of the floor. Jones buried a three-point shot and made a lay-up to put the squad up 7-2 early.
Sophomore Grant Pahl had an and-one and classmate Aidan Smylie put back a missed shot to go up by double figures at 20-9 at the 13:38 mark. Junior Jackson Jannsen scored his first bucket in a Trine uniform to spark a 7-0 run off of a pair of Manchester turnovers.
The Spartans clawed back to within five at the halfway point in the period, but the defense would once again lead to offense and great ball distribution led to three-point field goals falling. Jannsen netted a pair of deep shots and Cox hit the mark to prevent Manchester from getting to within one possession.
Sophomore Ryan Preston had four key points late in the first to help get to the 44-28 mark at halfway. 11 of the squad's 15 offensive rebounds came in the first period.
Cox began to pull away in scoring with five straight to begin the second half, but the Spartans hung around. Four minutes in, the lead was trimmed to eight at 49-41. The two battled back and forth all the way to the midway point in the second with both teams struggling for control of the pace.
Another 7-0 run, highlighted by five points by Jones, helped give the Thunder some breathing room at 69-53 with eight minutes to go. They were able to hold off a minor run by Manchester and a Jannsen steal resulted in a Cox dunk on the other end of the floor that sent visiting fans towards the exits with three minutes left to play.
A late flurry allowed the Spartans to reach the 78-67 final score. Trine was one make away from exactly 50% from the field (29-for-60) and outscored their opponents 36-16 in the paint. Megnanglo was the protector inside with four of the five team blocks. The role Jones played in the victory cannot be overstated as well. He matched Cox at 8-for-14 from the field and had a statline that read 19 points, six assists and five rebounds.
The Thunder remain at home in their next game on Friday, November 11 when Earlham College travels to Angola. Trine hosts the Quakers inside the MTI Center beginning at 7 p.m.