Press Release Written by Nathan Foltz
WILMINGTON, Del. - - The Wilmington University men's basketball team played in one of its most exciting games of the season against in-state rival Goldey-Beacom on Tuesday but found itself on the wrong end of a 77-73 final score at the Joseph West Jones Center in a Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference showdown.
The Wildcats suffered their fourth loss in a row, all to conference opponents, and now sit 8-14 overall and 4-10 in CACC play. Trending in the opposite direction are the Lightning, who have won eight straight games to jump up the conference standings at 10-4, 16-6 overall.
Wilmington got its first lead of the game at 13-11 seven and a half minutes into the contest on a Jaiden Guy layup, which came two minutes after Denim Perkins did the same to tie it. Justin Perez hit a three-pointer shortly after to extend the lead to five, but the rest of the quarter was fairly even between the two teams. Goldey had multiple easy scoring opportunities off of Wilmington mistakes and offensive rebounds (the Lightning led that stat 13-4 in the first half), but they struggled to convert on them, shooting just 10-39 (25.6%) from the field in the first period. The Wildcats were looking to go into halftime up by at least six after Guy made it 32-26 with a minute and a half left, but the Lightning countered with five unanswered to shrink the deficit to one after 20 minutes.
Goldey-Beacom came into the second half looking much more like the team that had averaged 96 points over their previous seven games, but Wilmington hung with them. Neither team could get more than four points of separation over the first 13 and a half minutes of the period until Guy converted on two free throws to give Wilmington a six-point lead, 62-56. Arnaldo Rodriguez followed that up with a three to make it a nine-point lead, Wilmington's largest of the night. The Lighting responded with a deep ball of their own, but Akeem Taylor restored the nine-point margin on a free throw with the game clock reading 4:52. Goldey turned it on from there, though, going on a 13-3 run over the next three minutes to tie the game at 71 on a tip-in and then take the lead by one thanks to the foul shot that came after.
A Lightning three pushed it to 75-71 with a little over a minute left, and Guy fought back with a layup to make it a two-point game. Goldey then turned the ball over on their next possession with 34 seconds left, giving Wilmington a golden opportunity to play for a final shot to either win or send the game to overtime. The Wildcats bled the clock until there were four seconds left, but Akeem Taylor couldn't connect on a jumper in the paint with two defenders in his face, and while attempting to get his own rebound, was called for a foul. The Lightning converted both free throws, ending the game to the delight of a raucous home crowd.
Although Wilmington's field goal and three-point percentages were over ten percent better than that of Goldey-Beacom in the game, they were outrebounded 54-32 (including 28-9 on the offensive glass) and outdone at the foul line, shooting 13-20 (65.0%) to the Lightning's 19-25 (76.0%).
Jaiden Guy was all over the floor again for the Wildcats, leading all scorers with 20 points. He was also one of three Wildcats to tally two assists. Tre Hawkins led the team with 10 rebounds, though for the first time this year couldn't pair a double-digit rebounding performance with double-digit points. The other double-digit scorers for Wilmington were Denim Perkins with 14, Justin Perez with 12, and Akeem Taylor with 10.
Next up for Wilmington is a home matchup with Caldwell on Saturday at the WU Athletics Complex. That game will start at approximately 2:00 P.M. following the women's contest.