NEWARK, Del. - - A dominant shooting performance by Georgian Court sunk the Wilmington University men's basketball team on Wednesday evening, as they were defeated 100-71 at the WU Athletics Complex in a Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference contest.
The loss eliminates the Wildcats from playoff contention, who are now two games back of the eighth spot in the CACC standings with a 5-14 conference record and only one regular season game remaining. Georgian Court boosts its odds of sneaking into the conference tournament with the win, as they currently sit in the ninth spot with a 7-12 record behind 7-11 Holy Family and 7-12 Bridgeport.
The Wildcats struggled to fire on all cylinders at once during the game, shooting 5-10 (50.0%) from three-point range in the first half and 12-25 (48.0%) from the field in the second, but their first half field goal rate was just 11-34 (32.4%) and their second half three-point shooting dropped to 2-8 (25.0%). Georgian Court, meanwhile, shot 36-61 (59.0%) from the floor over the course of the game (including 61.3% in the second half), with a 42.9% three-point rate on 12-28 shooting. The three-point shooting was a massive change from the first time these two teams met up a few weeks ago, where Georgian Court went only 2-16 (12.5%) from distance while Wilmington shot 3-18 (16.7%).
The Wildcats held a lead at 10-9 and were hanging around until the score went to 14-12 in favor of the Lions, but Georgian Court took over from there, going on a 15-1 run that gave them momentum for the rest of the game. Wilmington closed the gap to nine points a couple of different times in the first half, but the Lion defense prevented them from getting too many consecutive scoring opportunities and sent them into the break down 46-34.
The Georgian Court offense kept it up to open the second half, building a 64-44 lead with 13:58 left to play. The Lions found themselves in foul trouble early in the half, but the Wildcats were unable to capitalize on the extra scoring opportunities. When they did get to the line, though, they shot better than they have in some recent games, going 18-25 (72.0%) to outpace Georgian Court's 16-24 (66.7%) mark. The lead slowly piled up for the Lions over the final 13 minutes of game, with the final exclamation mark coming on a dunk with 19 seconds left to give them an even 100 points.
Jaiden Guy again led the Wilmington scoring effort, as he put up 22 points, four rebounds, and five assists. He was 4-5 from three-point range in the contest. Zavion Bianchini was the leading rebounder for the Wildcats with six, and Tre Hawkins was just behind him with five. Hawkins also had 13 points and Jaylin Horsey had 11 off the bench.
The Wildcats' regular season will conclude at home on Saturday evening against Dominican, which is slated for a 6:00 p.m. opening tip.