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Press Release written by Nathan Foltz
NEWARK, Del. - - If the first few games of the year are any indication, it should be a fun season for the Wilmington University men's basketball team, as they used all of two overtime periods to defeat Millersville University 101-99 on Wednesday night at the WU Athletics Complex.
The win pushes the Wildcats to 3-0, marking the first time they have done so since the 2016-17 season. The Marauders, meanwhile, drop to a hard-luck 1-2 as they found themselves on the wrong end of several Wilmington rallies.
Wilmington led through the first ten minutes of play, but then Millersville got on a bit of a roll. After going up 16-14, the Wildcats allowed an 18-10 run that put the Marauders in control, though they were able to whittle the deficit down to seven going into the break, thanks in part to an Akeem Taylor jumper with a few ticks before the buzzer.
Millersville's lead fluctuated between six and ten to open the second half as the teams traded blows, eventually ballooning it to 12 at 61-49. There were still more than 13 minutes left, though, and the Wildcats rallied with an impressive 16-4 run over the next five minutes to tie it, punctuated by a Taylor tip-in off of a missed Justin Perez layup. The Cats dug themselves back into a hole again right after that, though, putting themselves down 75-67 with a little over four minutes to go. Jaylin Horsey made a three two minutes later, Jaiden Guy put in a layup, and Denim Perkins sank two free throws to make it a one-point game with 49 seconds left. Tre Hawkins threw down a dunk with 25 to go, and after Millersville took a three-point lead with two free throws, Horsey banked a three off the glass with four seconds left to knot the score at 79 and force overtime.
Neither team could get more than three points of separation in overtime number one, as all of the scoring came courtesy of layups and free throws. After both teams tallied 11 points in the five minutes of extra play, a second overtime only felt right.
Millersville came out firing, draining a three and two jumpers against a single Hawkins two-ball to take a 97-92 lead with 3:11 to go. The teams traded free throws, then Horsey worked for an old-fashioned three to cut the difference to two. With a minute left, Millersville tried to get the ball inside but passed it across the baseline for a turnover, setting up Perkins to come down the court for a layup attempt. He drove in and missed to give the Marauders the ball back, but he quickly redeemed himself by helping Horsey to force a turnover on a jump ball with 30 seconds left. Then, at the other end of the court, he pushed it up the middle to lay in a hard-fought two points to bring it even at 99. But the reigning CACC Defensive Player of the Week wasn't done, as he stole the ball from Millersville at the top of the three-point arc and bounced the ball to Taylor, allowing the junior transfer to play last-second hero again on a right-handed lay-in with 0.8 on the clock. With Millersville unable to do anything in response, the Wildcats sent the packed house home in a frenzy following another unbelievable finish.
Wilmington's scoring was led by Tre Hawkins, who picked up 22 points while making 10 of his 13 free throws. Akeem Taylor had 21, Jaylin Horsey had 17 with three threes, and Justin Perez had 10 off the bench. Denim Perkins notched his first double-double of the year thanks to his 15 points and 10 rebounds while also adding six steals. Taylor and Perkins tied for the team lead with six rebounds.
The Wildcats will try to go 4-0 to start the season for the first time in program history when they head up to Shippensburg on Saturday to face the Raiders. The opening tip for that game is scheduled for 3:00 p.m.
