Farrar’s Monster Showing(36 pts./18 rebounds) Spearheads Guilford College Men’s Basketball to Wire-to-Wire Blowout of Lynchburg

Farrar’s Monster Showing Spearheads (RV) Men’s Basketball to Wire-to-Wire Blowout of Lynchburg
Senior elevates game to new heights with 36-point, 18-rebound double-double
from Bryce Johnson, Director of Athletic Communications

GREENSBORO, N.C. – It was complete and utter domination from the opening tip from Nick Farrar (Apex, N.C.), whom the University of Lynchburg had no answer for as he piled up 36 points and 18 rebounds to lead the nationally receiving votes Guilford College men’s basketball team to an 86-61 runaway victory in Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) action on Jack Jensen Court inside the Ragan-Brown FieldHouse on Wednesday night.

Forget about it being a career-night for Farrar, it was one for the ages as arguably the best individual showing the ODAC has seen this season. With a level of focus and intensity unseen thus far this year, he scored 36 points on his own, the most by a Quaker to this point and tied for the third-most by any player in the conference this winter trailing just Randolph College’s Jordan Phillips-McLoyd who scored 38 on two occasions. However, Farrar’s 36 is the most in an intraconference clash thus far. No such ties or qualifiers were needed for his work on the glass though, as his 18 rebounds are not only the most by any player in the ODAC this season, but the highest total by any Quaker since Tyler Sanborn ‘10 contained 23 rebounds against the College of Wooster on March 11, 2010.

From a team perspective, Guilford positioned themselves with an opportunity to clinch their 18th-consecutive ODAC Tournament berth with a victory Saturday and a Bridgewater College defeat against Ferrum College. GC matched their longest winning streak of the season, improving to 15-4 overall with their fourth-straight win, and they are now 8-2 in ODAC play. For the Hornets, they drop their eighth-in-a-row to GC to fall to 10-9 on the season and 4-6 in league play.

Posting their second-highest scoring output of the season in a conference showdown, Guilford attacked the glass on both ends finishing with a season-highs in rebounds, with 58, and defensive rebounds, with 39, and securing their highest offensive rebound total since November with 19. As a result, they recorded a season-best 22 second-chance points. They finished shooting .426 overall and .343 from three while holding the UofL to a meager .333 rate from the field and just 6-of-24 from three.

Farrar’s scoring and rebounding dominate the headline, but it was his most complete showing of the season. The senior finished .500 from the field and 13-of-15 from the free throw line while collecting one assist, steal, and block against just one turnover while grabbing six offensive boards on his way to his career-high scoring and rebounding totals. Gabe Proctor (Apex, N.C.) continued his steady play with 16 points on 5-for-10 overall and 4-of-8 from deep and Chase Ellis (Douglasville, Ga.) got his nightly ten points on 4-of-8 shooting with seven rebounds, and three helpers while going a game-best plus-37. Luke Proctor (Apex, N.C.) led GC in dimes with four assists.

Only one Hornet reached double-digits in the scoring column with Elijah Thomas netting ten points off the bench with half of those coming from the charity stripe. Cole Callaway and Jamarcus Brown contributed nine apiece as well. John Henderson led the UofL with six rebounds and while he was abysmal shooting the ball, finishing 1-of-9 from the field, Jake Hart showed why he is arguably the ODAC’s best distributor with a game-high seven assists on Lynchburg’s 21 total makes from the field.

Guilford, and Farrar in particular, wasted no time setting the tone as he tallied 11 of the game’s first 15 points on his own and with a little help from Ellis, they staked the Quakers to a double-digit lead in just about five minutes of game time at 13-2, and the GC advantage would never drop to single-digits the rest of the way. Caleb Furr (Warrenton, Va.) knocked down a three on the wing to open his quiet nine-point showing. Callaway got Lynchburg on a little bit of a run, scoring six of the game’s ensuing eight points but a Dawson Edwards (Durham, N.C.) triple curbed the rally approaching the midway point of the half with a 21-8 score.

Luke Proctor cashed in a three before Farrar went on another binge, scoring six of the next eight tallies by himself to get the lead to 20 for the first time on the night. Alternating baskets had the lead playing hopscotch with the 20-point margin for a while through the second media timeout. Following two Gabe Proctor makes at the charity stripe, Guilford led 37-17 but a quick 5-1 sting by the Hornets got the lead back into the teens for nearly of the remainder of the half. In the interim, Farrar eclipsed the double-double threshold for the second-straight game and fourth time overall this season, in just the opening half of play. That all set up Ellis, as he stepped-back ahead of the horn at the half, burying a three to stake GC to a 47-27 halftime advantage with their highest-scoring period since the calendar turned to 2025.

A credit to the young Lynchburg squad, they came out of the halftime break with a with a quality run, scoring a rapid six points in their best burst of the night to that point and forcing Tom Palombo to call an early timeout less than 60 seconds into the second stanza. The momentum proved fleeting, however, as Gabe Proctor made a second-chance three out of the timeout sparking a 15-4 stretch featuring nine from Proctor and another six from Farrar to open the lead to 25 again at 62-37 approaching the 14-minute mark.

The UofL cut into the deficit some, and got it sub-20 on one occasion, although a chase down block from Caleb Farrish (McLeansville, N.C.) immediately preceding the basket that got the lead down to 18, seemed to set the tone that the Quakers were not going to let their guests back into the game. They put the game away for good with a 13-1 outburst as the lead swelled into the 30’s. As Guilford emptied their bench late with Rival Axselle (Mechancisville, Va.) matching his career-high with three rebounds in the closing minutes, the Hornets did post their best scoring stretch of the night with eight-straight, but all that accomplished was bringing the score to a slightly more sightly 86-61 final.

The Quakers hit the homestretch, opening the regular season’s final month on Saturday, February 1st when they make the quick trip up Route 29 to matchup with Averett University next. Tipoff with the Cougars is set for 4:30 PM.

#GoQuakes

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