Greensboro College Men’s Basketball Falls to NC Wesleyan 80-70

The Pride contested the Battling Bishops at every turn, but hit only 23% of their three-point shots and dropped a disappointing conference match-up, 80-70. Greensboro has lost four of its last five games, with the only victory coming over non-conference opponent, Emory & Henry. The Pride’s last conference victory was January 18th in a 14-point win over Averett.

Greensboro jumped on top of the Bishops early, starting the game on a 9-2 run, but NC Wesleyan countered with a run of their own and took their first lead at the 12:16 mark on a dunk by Alex Murray. After trading baskets for most of the half, Wesleyan reeled off a 7-2 run and took an eight point lead before two free throws by Luqman Tijani slowed their momentum. The Bishops answered with a long three, however, and took a 32-25 lead into the half.

The second half started slowly, with the first basket not coming until two minutes in. Following several missed opportunities by the Bishops, TJ Holman tried to swing momentum in favor of The Pride with a big dunk. His heroics had little effect though, and NC Wesleyan grabbed their first double digit lead at 39-29.

The game started to drift away from Greensboro midway through the half, as the Bishops led by 20 with 10:03 remaining, but The Pride still had some fight left in them. Tijani hit a lay-up followed by a short jumper to start a 13-2 run and push The Pride back into the game. Tijani carried Greensboro late in the game, but it was three consecutive rain makers by Devonta Davis that pulled Greensboro within five.

Despite the valiant effort by Tijani and Davis, The Pride were forced to foul with time winding down and the Bishops hit four free throws to effectively ice the game. Murray’s two free throws with .22 seconds remaining produced the final score, 80-70.

Tijani led all scorers in the game with 19 points and grabbed a team high six rebounds as well. Holman scored 15 on six of nine shots from the floor and Davis added 12 points, all on three pointers. Holman, Brock Moorman, and Chakiris Moss all finished with five rebounds. Moss had an effective day running the point, dishing out four assists and nabbing five steals.

The Pride will return to action on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. against Methodist. Greensboro hopes the friendly confines of Hanes Gymnasium will favor them, as they look to break a four game losing streak in conference play and avenge an 84-81 overtime loss to the Monarchs on January 24th.