Upstart Second Half Lifts Guilford College Men’s Basketball To Playoff-Clinching Win Over Averett

Upstart Second Half Lifts (RV) Men’s Basketball To Playoff-Clinching Win Over Averett
Farrar nears double-double, Apex Legends star in fifth-consecutive Quaker victory
Courtesy of Bryce Johnson, Director of Athletic Communications

DANVILLE, Va. – Trailing at halftime, the nationally receiving votes Guilford College men’s basketball team not only rallied, but routed Averett University with their highest-scoring half of the season, securing a spot in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) Tournament with a 91-71 victory at the E. Stuart James Grant Center on Saturday evening.

The Quakers win is their fifth-straight, improving them to 16-4 on the season. It also upped their record to 9-2 in conference play and paired with Bridgewater College’s defeat to Ferrum College, secured their 18th-straight ODAC Tournament berth beginning in a couple of weeks. So now the fight becomes scrapping for seeding as GC elevated themselves into a three-way tie for third in the ultra-congested top of the conference as they stand with an equal record as Virginia Wesleyan University and Roanoke College, who they visit on Wednesday. The Cougars remain in the mix for the postseason, meanwhile, but it has been tough sledding in league play as they drop to 3-8 against conference competition and 8-12 overall.

Held in check in the first half of action, Guilford shot .724 from the field as a team and went 7-for-12 from three in the second period to finish with team shooting marks of .522 overall and .500 from range overall to eclipse the 90-point threshold for the fourth time this season, their most since 2017-18. The top free throw shooting team in the ODAC, AU showed why making 13-of-16 from the stripe and connected at a .469 rate overall and .480 from distance. This game ended up boiling down to turnovers as the visiting Quakers only gave the ball away a season-low four times against Averett’s 12 and guests took full advantage with a season-high 26 points off turnovers.

The Apex Legends were nearly unstoppable in this game for Guilford. Gabe Proctor (Apex, N.C.) maintained his torrid shooting stretch, cashing in 7-of-10 overall and 5-of-7 from three to finish with a team-leading 20 points. Nick Farrar (Apex, N.C.) came just a rebound short of his third-straight double-double pairing a game-high nine rebounds with 19 points on .500 shooting. Luke Proctor (Apex, N.C.) rounded out the trio by matching his career-high for free throw makes, going 6-for-6, and his season-high for helpers with a game-best six assists, to complement his 18 points. Chase Ellis (Douglasville, Ga.) joined them in double-digits with 13 points and Caleb Farrish (McLeansville, N.C.) pitched in seven tallies, rounding out the GC starters who accounted for 77 of the team’s 91 points on the night.

Jamison Graves had one of those nights for the home team, scoring 31 points on 8-of-11 from the field and 6-for-8 from three although he did not get much help as the lone Cougar to score double-digits. Isaiah Ramazani had eight off the bench and Bryce Shaw had seven but no one else netted more than five for AU. Terrell Fitzgerald led Averett with seven rebounds while Clay Hodges finished even with Graves for a team-high for assists with three apiece.

Graves and Farrar traded threes to open the scoring but the Cougars came out of the gates fired up, cashing in a trio of threes in an 13-5 stretch to seize the lead into the first media timeout. Then out of the break, Ellis split a pair at the line and Fitzgerald converted a second-chance score to open AU’s advantage to nine. Caleb Furr (Warrenton, Va.) got things back in the right direction for Guilford, sparking a 12-4 stretch that was highlighted by a Luke Proctor four-point play, narrowing it to a 22-21 score at the under-seven media timeout.

Farrar converted three-points the old fashion way out of the break, giving GC their first advantage of the night and the teams traded the lead for a while. With the guests leading 29-28, Graves and Ramazani canned consecutive treys, their seventh and eighth as a team in the stanza, and while Ellis countered with one of his own, another two by Graves made it 36-32 AU at the half.

Whatever adjustments were made at the break paid huge dividends for GC, however. Gabe Proctor cashed in three makes from long range to headline a 20-4 Quaker rally with the team making eight of their first nine attempts out of the locker room. The only interruptions along the way were a Shaw layup and a couple Graves free throws following a taunting technical on GC. With the onslaught, Guilford had turned a four-point disadvantage to a 52-40 advantage and Averett would not get inside double-digits the rest of the way.

The Cougars started finding some offensive success, but they just could not slow the runaway train that was the Guilford offense. The visitors just saw their lead continue to balloon peaking at 24 following an Ellis triple with six to play. As each squad unloaded their bench, GC would eclipse the 90-point mark with a Jalen Walker (Durham, N.C.) layup, finalizing the 91-71 win.

The Quakers travel to Virginia next to compete in probably the most pivotal game of the season thus far against the Maroons of (RV) Roanoke College. Tipoff for that critical ODAC clash is set for 7:30 PM.

#GoQuakes

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