ANGOLA, Ind. – The Trine University men's basketball team overcame a poor shooting night on Saturday to defeat The University of Olivet by a score of 76-66. The win puts the 12th-ranked Thunder at 12-1 overall this season and 2-0 in Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) play. Olivet falls to 2-11 and 0-2 in league action.
Trine shot a season-low from both the field at 42.6% (29-of-68) and from three at 12.5% (2-of-16) but took advantage of a 25-7 difference in turnovers to secure the win. The Thunder scored 26 points on Comet miscues and dominated points in the paint to the tune of 46-24.
"Their physicality affected us more than ours affected them," Head Coach Brooks Miller stated postgame. "It was a quick turnaround, but I don't want to take anything away from our team. We were not at our best and they had just battled Hope College to the wire the other night and we found a different way to win. I think that's a great sign. We made the right plays when we needed to make them."
Work on the offensive glass also led to a huge discrepancy in shot attempts. Trine brought in 16 offensive rebounds, led by Nate Tucker with four and a team-high eight total rebounds, that helped contribute to a 68-48 difference in shots. "We crashed the boards hard and shared the ball really well," Tucker mentioned. "Our second looks helped us get extra shots up and they were able to fall."
Olivet threw the first punch in the game when they took an 18-12 lead and forced Trine into the game's first timeout at 12:22 left in the first half. The Comets knocked down four shots from behind the three-point line in the opening minutes of the game to build a lead. A Brent Cox dunk coming out of the break provided a spark of energy, but continued success from deep allowed Olivet to achieve their largest lead of the game at 25-14.
A dunk from Emmanuel Megnanglo kickstarted a 15-0 run that put the Thunder in front 29-25 with just over five minutes before halftime. Drew Moore was able to leak out into the open court and make plays on the fastbreak as well as Tucker to build the lead up to 42-36 at halftime. Cox was the team's leading scorer after 20 minutes at 10 points.
Fred Garland got the scoring started in the second half with a made jump shot and Cortez Garland added one a few minutes later, but the Comets were able to hang around. After Olivet cut the Trine lead to two at 50-48, the Thunder went on a 12-0 run, highlighted by a rim-rattling dunk by Megnanglo. Aidan Smylie gave the home team a 62-48 edge with just over eight minutes to play.
Olivet was not going away without a fight, however and made it a seven-point game, but a layup by Cox and three-point field goal by Moore extended the lead to 12 at 71-59 and sucked the life out of the visiting team. The Thunder were able to get the stops they needed down the stretch and made enough free throws to put the contest away, 76-66.
Cox had a game-high 18 points while Moore (13 points), Fred Garland (10 points) and Megnanglo (10 points) were in double figures. Fred Garland distributed six assists in the game to lead the way for Trine.
The Thunder are on the road next week, beginning at Alma College on Wednesday, January 10 at 7:30 p.m.