ALMA, Mich. – A dominant first half by the Trine University men's basketball team carried the 11th-ranked team in NCAA DIII to an 83-71 victory on the road Wednesday at Alma College. The Thunder won the first 20 minutes 47-27 and held on for a 12-point victory at the end of the night to get to 13-1 overall and remain undefeated at 3-0 inside the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA). The Scots of Alma are now 7-7 in 2023-24 and 1-2 inside the conference.
The shooting percentages were almost even at 41% for both, but Trine held a firm advantage at the charity stripe. The Thunder were 27-for-38 (71.1%) on free throws while Alma was just 12-for-23 (52.2%). Trine outrebounded their opposition 46-35 and 17 offensive boards led to a 25-14 edge in second chance points.
The first made field goal did not come until two and a half minutes in for the Thunder as Aidan Smylie buried a three. That would spark a run of five consecutive makes to claim a 13-4 lead. Smylie would hit again from deep during the run.
Cortez Garland would go on a 7-2 run himself over Alma to continue to build onto the lead. His layup off the steal by Fred Garland put the score at 20-6 with 12:32 to play in the first half. A 10-0 run from 8:29 left in the half to 5:50 remaining was capped off by a three-point try by Fred Garland to make it 31-13. The teams would go even for the most part until the closing seconds in the period when Smylie crashed the offensive glass for a score as the buzzer sounded.
Brent Cox and Emmanuel Megnanglo electrified the visiting fans with a layup and a dunk at the start of the second half to give the team their largest lead of the game at 22. A dunk on the other end by Alma fueled an 11-0 run for the home squad to cut the gap to 56-46. A Smylie layup on an offensive rebound ended a nearly four-minute scoring drought with just over 12 minutes on the clock.
A flurry of free throws by Fred Garland kept the lead in double figures and layups by Smylie and Cox with five minutes to go made the score 71-56. Head Coach Brooks Miller called a timeout as the Scots chipped away at the Trine lead with 2:05 left and out of the break, Cortez Garland made a layup to continue to push the lead. Nine points ended up being as close as Alma could get down the stretch as the Thunder were on top in the end, 83-71.
The Garland brothers combined for 36 points as Cortez led all scorers with 19 and Fred with 17. Smylie had a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds while Cox was the leading rebounder with 12, a new career-high. Drew Moore also finished as a double-digit scorer off the bench with 10 points.
The road trip continues for Trine as the team makes their way to Albion College to take on the Britons on Saturday, January 13 beginning at 3 p.m.