Men's Basketball Slashes St. Andrews

Laurinburg, N.C.- The men's basketball team cruised to a comfortable win on Saturday. The team picked up a 26-point road victory against the St. Andrews University Knights. 

Through the first ten minutes of the game, the score remained close or saw the Bulldogs trail. Peyton West put the game in a 2-2 tie while Kobe Pride gave the team their first lead of the game at 4-2. Jay Reed moved the lead to four points with his layup making the score 6-2 and a Ty Hurst free throw moved the score to 7-4 with 17:16 remaining in the first half. St. Andrews took over the lead before a pair of free throws by Keshawn McPherson put the game in another tie at 9-9. St. Andrews broke the tie by scoring five straight points to take a 14-9 lead with 14:45 until halftime. Trailing 18-15 with 10:50 left, Darius Rozier started the team on a run that helped them take a 42-27 lead into the halftime break. Kariden Hardrick gave the team a 19-18 lead and Rozier scored nine straight points to extend the lead to 28-19. McPherson helped the team take a double-digit lead with a layup a few minutes later, making the score 32-22. Lovvorn Stratton hit a three-pointer to move the team to 40 points, and the half ended with the Bulldogs outscoring 17-9 as they led 42-27. 

Pride scored the first two baskets for the team in the first half, and McPherson scored back-to-back baskets to move the team to 50 points and a 17-point advantage. Hurst scored eight straight points for the Bulldogs and Rozier made a layup to move the team to the 60-point threshold as the team kept a comfortable margin on the scoreboard of 27 points, leading 60-33. The largest lead of the game for the Bulldogs occurred with 12:09 remaining as McPherson's layup made the score 62-33 for a 29-point advantage. Nichaune Jones and Caleb Milen got in on the scoring action as well, helping the team go on to win by a final score of 79-53.

Rozier had a career-high 22 points while McPherson added 14 points and Pride scored 10 points. Rozier also led with nine rebounds.

Up next for Tennessee Wesleyan (5-9, 5-8 AAC) is a home matchup against Truett McConnell University on Monday. The game is set to begin at 6:00 p.m.