Press Release Written by Nathan Foltz
NEWARK, Del. - - Bridgeport dealt the Wilmington University men's basketball team a tough loss on Saturday at the WU Athletics Complex, as the Purple Knights came back to defeat the Wildcats 86-81 in a Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference showdown.
Wilmington drops to 8-11 with the loss, 4-7 in the conference. Bridgeport gets to the .500 mark in overall record at 9-9 while getting over the hump in CACC play with a 6-5 record.
The first half was back and forth over the first ten minutes, with the teams trading blows until Akeem Taylor put the Wildcats in front 14-13 just before the midway point of the period. Wilmington held that lead for the rest of the half, going up by as much as 11 points 34-23, thanks in part to a brief 8-2 run. Bridgeport whittled the deficit to seven by halftime, going into the break down 41-34.
Wilmington was able to keep their distance to start the second, building the lead back to ten after six and a half minutes. Justin Perez hit a three a couple of minutes later to make it 61-51, and Jaiden Guy made two free throws at the seven-minute mark to push the lead to ten again at 74-64, but Bridgeport slowly chipped away from there. The Wildcat offense was clicking better than it had in recent games, but four straight scoreless possessions let the Purple Knights back into the contest with an 8-0 run. Jaylin Horsey made it 78-72 with two free throws, but with four minutes left, Bridgeport again got on a run and scored eight unanswered, this time enabling them to take the lead. Perez connected on another huge three-pointer to put the Wildcats back in front 81-80 with 19 seconds on the clock, but at the other end, Bridgeport drew a foul against Taylor to give them two points from the charity stripe.
Now down 82-81 with nine seconds left, Denim Perkins laid a perfect pass from half court to the paint for Zavion Bianchini, but his layup was blocked against the backboard. The Wildcats fouled with two seconds left, but the Purple Knights got an extra two shots because of a technical foul assessed to the Wilmington bench for arguing that there should have been a foul against Bianchini on his layup attempt. Bridgeport made all four foul shots to put the game out of reach for Wilmington, ending hopes for what had looked a few minutes earlier to be their fifth conference win.
Jaylin Horsey led the Wilmington scoring with 24 points, which included 4-10 from beyond the arc and 8-10 from the line. He also tied Akeem Taylor for the team lead in steals with three. Tre Hawkins led the rebounding effort with five boards, and Taylor and Jaiden Guy each dished out five assists. Guy and Justin Perez were second and third in scoring, respectively, with 16 and 13 points.
The Wildcats will stay home for their next contest, which will come on Wednesday night against Jefferson, barring any complications from the impending winter storm. That game is scheduled to start at 8:00 P.M. following the women's match.
