Guilford College men’s basketball now ranked #2 in the nation

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Guilford College’s men’s basketball team climbed four
spots into second place in this week’s D3hoops.com Top 25 Poll released
Tuesday. The ranking is an all-time high for the Quakers’ men’s basketball
team. The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point garnered all 25 first-place
votes in the poll and holds the top spot by a 37-points margin.

The Quakers (15-1) are one of four Old Dominion Athletic
Conference (ODAC) teams ranked among this week’s top 12 teams.
Randolph-Macon College (14-1), last week’s top-ranked team, slipped to third
place following a 90-67 road loss to Eastern Mennonite University. The
Royals (13-1) jumped from 18th place to seventh in this week’s poll after
their victory. Virginia Wesleyan College (14-2) slipped from eighth to
12th place in the rankings after falling at Guilford Jan. 16, 71-56.
Guilford plays at Randolph-Macon Jan. 30 and hosts Eastern Mennonite Feb. 10.

Coach Tom Palombo’s Quakers have matched the best start in
school history with a 15-1 overall record. The Quakers extended their
winning streak to 11 with a 96-62 home victory over ODAC-rival Roanoke
College Monday night. The 11-game winning streak marks Guilford’s
fourth-longest in school history and the longest since a 16-game skein
during the 2007-08 campaign. The Quakers are also in the midst of a 16-game
home winning streak and an 18-game home winning streak against ODAC foes.

Since 2006, Guilford has won 83.96 percent (89-17) of its games,
a percentage surpassed only by the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill (84.96%, 113-20) among the state’s men’s basketball teams.

The senior trio of center Tyler Sanborn (Mount Airy, N.C./Elkin)
and guards Rhett Bonner (Yadkinville, N.C./North Forsyth (Presbyterian)) and
Clay Henson (Glen Alpine, N.C./Freedom) accounts for nearly 63 percent of
the Quakers’ offense. With a league-high 13 double-doubles this year,
Sanborn averages 19.1 points and 13.1 rebounds per game. His rebounding
figure leads the league and ranks third in NCAA Division III through games
of Jan. 10. Bonner averages 13.7 points and a team-high 3.4 assists per
game. He ranks among the ODAC’s best in free-throw percentage (.887) and
three-point percentage (.427). Henson is coming off a season-high 30-point
effort in the win over Roanoke in which he hit eight-of-12 three-pointers.
The Quakers’ career leader in three-pointers, he averages 18.1 points per
game and is closing in on 1,500 career points.

Guilford hosts league-rival Bridgewater College Wednesday (1/20)
before a week-long break that concludes with a Jan. 27 contest at Roanoke.

Dave Walters
Guilford College Athletics