ANGOLA, Ind. – The Trine University men's basketball team secured their second straight victory of the season on Friday night with a 70-61 victory inside the MTI Center over Earlham College.
The Thunder had 15 steals on 24 Quaker turnovers and held Earlham to 38.6% shooting in the victory. The win makes Trine 2-0 on the year while Earlham drops their first game of the 2022-23 season.
The crowd fed off the energy of Emmanuel Megnanglo this evening. He had back-to-back games with double digit rebounds with 10 tonight and he added eight points as well. Megnanglo was the catalyst on the defensive end of the floor with a career-high five steals and four blocked shots. "It's about the small environment and how everyone knows each other," Megnanglo mentioned of the crowd. "They encourage me and keep me pushing forward."
"His consistent spirit is really unique," head coach Brooks Miller said of Menganglo post-game. "He's the guy that's vocal on defense and picking guys up when they've made a mistake."
It was a balanced scoring attack early on for the Thunder with the first five baskets being scored by different players. Connor Jones, Brent Cox and Aidan Smylie each knocked down shots from long range to claim an early lead, and a dunk by Megnanglo made it 13-11 Trine.
Grant Pahl buried a jump shot to give the Thunder a double-digit advantage at 24-14 with six minutes remaining in the first half. Ryan Preston scored off of a steal by Cameron Awls to go up by 12 points a few moments later, a mark that would be the largest lead of the half.
A Megnanglo offensive rebound and score along with a three-point field goal from the big man highlighted an eight-point first half. A couple of late baskets by the Quakers made it 38-31 Thunder at the end of the first half.
Turnovers hurt Trine early in the second half as Earlham got to within one possession, but a couple of Nate Tucker lay-ups for his first career points nearly four minutes into the period helped keep Earlham at arm's length. The Quakers would get the deficit down to two at 47-45, but seven consecutive points from Cox, including a massive dunk, kept the team on top 54-47.
Jones chipped in during the middle stages of the second half and got his scoring total up to 14 at game's end. At 61-53, both teams struggled to find the bottom of the net, that was until Coach Miller used a timeout to draw up an out of bounds play to get Cox another rim-rattling dunk.
That momentum would carry the team to a 70-61 victory at the end of 40 minutes. Cox was once again the leading scorer with 21 points on 8-of-17 shooting. He also grabbed seven rebounds, all on defense.
Up next, the Thunder take part in the Great Lakes Invitational on Friday, November 18 and Saturday, November 19. Trine takes on Benedictine University on Friday afternoon beginning at 1 p.m. at Wabash College.