Press Release written by Nathan Foltz
NEWARK, Del. - - The shots wouldn't fall in the first half for the Wilmington University men's basketball team on Saturday, and despite a second-half rally, they fell short to Post University, 80-71, at the WU Athletics Complex in a Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference contest.
The loss is the Wildcats' second in a row where they fell well below their season average of 80.6 points per game, with this one dropping them to 3-6 in-conference and 7-10 overall. Post used the victory to improve to 6-10 on the year, but with a 5-3 record against CACC opponents, they sit in second place.
The first half saw some uncharacteristically poor shots from Wilmington after they allowed Post to score the first eight points of the game. As a team, the Wildcats made just nine of their 30 shot attempts, a 30.0% mark that is well short of their 45.5% average over the entire season. They also only hit two of their 13 three-point attempts (15.4%) and went 8-13 from the charity stripe (61.5%), as Post outpaced them in all three facets of play. The lone bright spot was Akeem Taylor, who accounted for 16 of the team's 28 points over the opening 20 minutes as the Eagles went into halftime up 47-28.
The second half started out much better for the Wildcats, as they outscored Post 26-9 in the first nine minutes, punctuated by a Denim Perkins three that made it 56-54, the closest Wilmington had been all game. Post got some separation again, but some timely layups by Tre Hawkins and Jaiden Guy, plus a Taylor three, tied the game for the first time since 0-0 at 61 with six minutes on the clock. Wilmington took its first lead of the game two minutes later thanks to a pair of Perkins free throws, and after a Post layup, Justin Perez made it 69-67 for the largest Wildcat lead of the afternoon.
That was the final time they would hold the lead, though, as Post responded with a three-pointer, and the Wildcat comeback attempt ran out of gas. The Eagles wouldn't again surrender command of the scoreboard, ending the game on a 13-2 run over the final three and a half minutes.
Akeem Taylor led all scorers with 21 points before fouling out in the closing seconds. He also had four rebounds, three assists, and two steals. Tre Hawkins picked up his first double-double since the second week of December, dropping 18 points while pulling down 10 rebounds and handing out four assists. Jaylin Horsey had 12 points, and Jaiden Guy had five rebounds with three assists.
The Wildcats have a great opportunity to get the offense back on track Tuesday, when they head up to Lakewood to face a Georgian Court team that is giving up an average of 88.3 points per game to CACC opponents and lost Saturday to Felician 120-69. That game is tabbed to start at approximately 7:00 P.M. following the women's contest.
