ALBION, MICH. -- The Trine University men's basketball team improved to 9-0 following a 76-70 win against Albion College in a non-conference game in Albion, Mich.
Junior Nick Bowman (Angola, Ind./Hamilton Southeastern) scored a game-high 27 points on 76.9 percent shooting (10-of-13) and went six-of-nine (66.7 percent) from three-point range. Two other Trine players scored in double figures in junior Bryce Williams (Archbold, Ohio/Archbold) with 16 points and junior Mitchell Geller (Huntington, Ind./Huntington North) who added 12 points. Geller was the team's leading rebounder with four boards.
Additionally, junior Aiden Warzecha (Milford, Mich./Milford) led all players in assists with seven.
As a team, the Thunder shot 58.7 percent (27-of-46) from the floor and 77.3 percent (17-of-22) at the free-throw line.
The teams played to four ties and swapped leads a total of three times in the first half. Trine (9-0) trailed by three points, 11-8, at the 16:08 mark when a three-pointer by Williams began a 14-3 scoring run and gave the Thunder the lead for good which grew to eight points following the run by a margin of 22-14, with 11:56 to go in the half.
Albion battled back to even the score at 22-22 thanks to an 8-0 run, but Trine never relinquished the lead as back-to-back layups from Bowman and Geller, followed by a 9-0 run as part of a larger 13-3 scoring differential, resulted in Trine's first double-digit lead of the contest at 35-25 at the 3:30 mark. The Britons later made it a six-point game before the end of the half, but a pair of free-throws by sophomore Connor Jones (Danville, Ind./Danville) ended the scoring in the period and gave Trine an eight-point lead at the break, 37-29.
Leading by eight points with a little over 16 minutes remaining, a layup by Bowman sparked an 8-0 Trine run that was capped by a dunk by Geller and resulted in a 16-point margin, 52-36, at the 12:05 mark. Trine went on to lead by as many as 18 points with eight minutes to go thanks to a Geller layup for a score of 59-41.
Albion looked to rally and outscored Trine, 17-6, over the next 4:30 after the Geller layup, to cut the Thunder lead to single figures again, 65-58, with three-and-a-half minutes remaining. Trine increased the lead to 12 points with under a minute to go which hovered around the double-figure mark the rest of the way. The Thunder boasted a nine-point lead with 10 seconds on the clock following one-of-two freebies by Bowman when an Albion three-pointer in the final seconds ended the scoring as Trine headed back to Angola with a 76-70 victory.
Trine will stay on the road and travel to Kalamazoo, Mich. for a matchup against Kalamazoo College on Tuesday, Feb. 9 in the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association opener. The game is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.
