ANGOLA, Ind. – The Trine University men's basketball team was able to secure a ranked victory over the University of Wisconsin-Platteville in the finale of the 2023 St. Andrews Products Classic on Saturday afternoon. The Thunder defeated the Pioneers by a score of 80-68. #19 Trine now sits at 10-1 overall through the entirety of the non-conference slate and the Pioneers of #24 Platteville are 9-2.
The defense showed up ready to play in the first half as Platteville was contained to just one make in their first 14 shot attempts and had four turnovers. In that time, they could only muster up three points in the first ten minutes of game time. On the offensive end of the floor, the Thunder had opened up a 15-3 lead. Fred Garland, Drew Moore and Brent Cox made it 7-0 Trine and Hayden Jones added five points to his total during the scoring run.
Cortez Garland was able to create in the open court as the Thunder took advantage of nine miscues by the Pioneers and turned those into 12 points. He would finish the half with a team-high 11 points with two steals.
The lead got all the way up to 19 with just over three minutes remaining in the first half thanks to a layup on the fast break by Cortez Garland. Jayce Cusack scored late in the period to get the lead to 41-23 and Emmanuel Megnanglo used his length for late-period blocks to remain in front. Trine shot 51.7% (15-for-29) and made 9-of-13 attempts at the charity stripe.
Moore and Cox extended the lead all the way to 21 with a pair of baskets to open the second half. The largest lead of the game came with 13 minutes to play when Fred Garland made it a 24-point game at 55-31.
From there, the Pioneers would have to dig deep into their bag of tricks to try to mount a comeback and after faltering from deep in the first half, they finally started to fall a little in the second half. Three makes from beyond the arc made the score 57-40 with just over ten minutes left on the clock.
The work on the offensive glass by Megnanglo, Cox and Fred Garland all led to second chance points for the Thunder in order to keep the lead at double figures. The closest Platteville would get in their scoring run was to within 11 at eight minutes to go. Moore fueled a scoring run for Trine that brought the lead back up to 70-51 with five minutes remaining.
The Pioneers would do some late game scoring, but the result was already well in hand and the scoreboard ended up not quite matching the level of disparage on the floor in the contest at 80-68. It was a balanced scoring attack for the Thunder with once again, all five members of the starting lineup in double figures. Cortez Garland led the charge with 15 points.
The Thunder defense was able to hold one of the more potent offenses in NCAA DIII to 28.6% (20-of-70) from the field and 26.3% (10-of-38) from beyond the arc. Trine held a slight rebounding edge 47-45 and it was the defense of Megnanglo with four blocks that helped the home team dominate the battle inside 48-18.
Conference play begins for the Thunder on Thursday, January 4 when the team travels to Kalamazoo College for a 7:30 p.m. tip-off.
