Ravens Fight Off Bulldog Rallies

The Anderson University men's basketball team (1-0) fought off a pair of rallies from Adrian College (0-1) in a 75-65 victory on Friday in Adrian, Mich.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• After Adrian's Connor Pelham slammed a dunk for the Bulldogs on the opening possession, the Ravens scored the next nine points to open with a 9-2 lead with 16 minutes, 45 seconds remaining in the first half.
• Maurice Knight scored Anderson's first five points and nine of Anderson's first 11 points.
• Trailing Anderson 11-4, Adrian put together a 10-0 run to take a 14-11 lead with 13:11 left in the first half. Pelham capped the run with a dunk.
• Dalton DuBois converted two free throws. Jordan Gadis followed up with a layup to give Anderson a 15-14 advantage. The Bulldogs would never regain the lead.
• Andrew Larson would provide Adrian with a layup to tie the game at 18-all, but then Anderson would spark a 10-0 run to go ahead 28-18 with 5:59 left in the first half. Fred Shropshire would cap the run by draining a 3-pointer.
• The Ravens carried a 38-27 lead into halftime.
• Anderson held its biggest advantage in the second half, leading Adrian 51-33 with 15:05 remaining.
• The Bulldogs began to trim the lead. De'Ovion Price hit a jumper to cut Anderson's lead to 55-47 with 9:31 to go.
• Knight responded with a 3-pointer to the Ravens up by 11.
• Trailing Anderson by 10, Pellham hit a jumper and Price drained a 3-pointer to cut Anderson's lead to 61-56 with 6:08 to go.
• Anderson scored the next six points. Gadis knocked down four free throws while DuBois made a layup to give the Ravens a 67-56 advantage.
• Price contributed a bucket and Larson added a bucket-and-1 to cut the deficit to 67-61 with 2:46 to go.
• The Bulldogs came up empty on their next three possessions to help seal their fate. Francis Uzorh made a layup with 1:24 to go to put Anderson ahead by eight. Anderson outscored Adrian 6-4 for the remainder of the contest.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Anderson rolled to a 47-30 rebounding advantage.
• The Bulldogs outscored the Ravens 24-13 off turnovers.
• Knight produced 21 points, 11 rebounds, four steals and two blocks.
• Gadis contributed 15 points and 11 rebounds.
• Uzorh notched 10 points, eight rebounds and three blocks.

COACH OWEN HANDY'S COMMENTS

• This was in many ways a consummate first game. We showed flashes of being a pretty good team, and at times also looked like a group trying to find its identity.
• We turned it over too much, and we settled too often on offense for shots that were adequate but not great. We did some nice things defensively and really had a dominating effort on the glass.
• On the whole I am pleased with our effort. We overcame some adversity in the middle of the second half and did enough to win.
• We got great minutes off the bench tonight from Phil Bessick. Phil did a good job defensively and steadied the ship when we had some foul trouble.

UP NEXT

The Ravens battle Kalamazoo College (1-1) on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. in Kalamazoo, Mich.