Men’s basketball team wins season-opener at Wilmington, 86-65

WILMINGTON, Ohio – The Olivet College men's basketball team used a balanced scoring attack and tenacious rebounding effort to open its season with an 86-65 win over Wilmington (Ohio) College this evening at Hermann Court.

Final Score: Olivet 86, Wilmington 65
Location: Hermann Court; Wilmington, Ohio
Records: Wilmington 0-2 overall, Olivet 1-0 overall

• Olivet had eight players score in the game.
• Senior Eddie Thigpen led the way with 19 points.
• Senior Derrick Johnson added 16 points, including four baskets from behind the three-point arc.
• Seniors Dane Vos and Tevin Ali each contributed 12 points.
• Vos grabbed a game-best 13 rebounds for his first double-double in a Comet uniform.
• Junior Noah Wiswary filled the stat sheet with eight points, five rebounds, five assists and four steals.
• Freshman Patrick Hollis came off the bench to pull down 10 rebounds.

• In the first half, neither team led by more than four points until freshman Lorris Upshaw made a layup to put the Comets ahead 22-16 with 12:34 left. The Quakers closed the gap to four points on three occasions, including 26-22. Olivet then used a 5-0 run to go up by nine points.
• Wilmington battled back and cut its deficit down to five points twice, with the last time being 36-31. The Comets outscored the Quakers, 10-1, over the final four and half minutes of the half to take a 46-32 lead at the break. The final two points were on a dunk by Thigpen right before the buzzer sounded.
• In the opening 20 minutes, Olivet shot 50 percent (20-of-40) from the floor compared to 28.6 percent (10-of-35) for Wilmington. The Comets also had a 30 to 16 advantage in rebounds, 13 to three edge in assists and six to two edge in blocked shots.
• Olivet used a 15-6 run in the first five minutes of the second half to extend its lead to 23 points, 61-38. The Quakers answered with an 8-2 spurt to make the score 63-46 before the Comets took their largest lead of the game at 25 points, 74-49, around the mid-point of the half. Olivet's advantage would stay at least 16 points for the remainder of the game.
• For the game, the Comets posted 49.3 field goal percentage (35-of-71) to 31.9 percent (22-of-69), with a 40.0 to 19.0 percentage advantage behind the three-point arc. Olivet had a +21 edge in total rebounds, 55 to 34. The Comets dished out 13 more assists and blocked six more shots.

• Tonight's game marked the fourth all-time meeting between Olivet and Wilmington on the basketball court. The Comets won the first two meetings (52-44 on November 17, 1995, and 91-69 on November 23, 2002), while the Quakers won the third meeting (69-67 on December 18, 2019).

"We are still a work in progress with a long way to go, but it's always nice to get a win," said Olivet head coach Sam Hargraves. "They missed a lot of good looks in the first half which helped us. We were disappointed with our energy at the start of the second half but overall, we made some plays, dug in on defense enough times to keep the lead at a good distance. I am proud of our overall effort. We have sold older guys on this team, but we are also younger together. It is going to take some time for us to gel."

• Bilal Snow led all scorers with 20 points.
• Jeffery Mansfield netted 16 points, with half of the points coming at the free throw line.
• Collmann Aaron grabbed a team-best nine rebounds.

• Olivet plays an exhibition game Wednesday night at Saginaw Valley State University. The next countable game is Saturday at Anderson (Ind.) University. Tip-off is scheduled for 3 p.m.