#3 Walsh Makes
Early Lead Stand Up Against Highlanders
(Houghton, N.Y.)—Walsh University, ranked third in the nation in the National
Association of Intercollegiate Athletics’ Division II, got
out to an early lead and withstood a second-half run to win
95-72 at Houghton College Wednesday night.
“We
put ourselves in a big hole when we turned the ball over 10
times in the first 10 minutes.” said Brad Zarges, Houghton’s
head coach. The Cavaliers converted the turnovers into a
28-5 lead. To their credit, though, the Highlanders weren’t
done.
“We
fought ourselves back into that game.” Zarges said, “We
started to make some plays offensively and took care of the
ball.” In fact, Houghton scored 13 times on its last 14
possessions of the first half to cut the deficit to 51-34.
“We chipped away and got some momentum going,” Zarges said.
Sophomore forward Ben Kopp led the turnaround with nine of
his team-high 17 points in the first half. Mada Abdelhamid,
a sophomore center, added nine in the first half as well, on
his way to 15 for the game, a total matched by sophomore
forward Yannick Anzuluni.
The
Highlanders continued their comeback in the second half. “We
got it down to nine, with the basketball and we had a shot
in the paint,” Zarges recalled. It was as close as the
Highlanders would get, as Walsh gradually rebuilt its lead
over the last ten minutes of the game.
“Down the stretch we didn’t take care of the ball as well as
we had in the middle part of the game,” said Zarges, “and
they just kept on doing what they do: knocking down
perimeter jump-shots, scoring inside, taking care of the
ball.”
Still, Zarges would have liked to have had the chance to
throw out those first ten minutes. “I was frustrated and
proud at the same time,” he said. “I was frustrated by the
first 10 minutes of the game and proud of the next 30. We
played them even for the last 30.”
Brandon Weems led the Cavs in scoring with 22, followed by
Brandon Speck and Lamar Skeeter with 17 each and Josh
Johnson with 15.
Walsh is now 11-2, while Houghton slips to 4-5. The
Highlanders will be back in action both Friday and Saturday
at the Nielsen Center. On Friday both Houghton teams take
on their counterparts from Ohio Dominican University, with the men set to tip off at
6 and the women’s game at 8. On Saturday the teams will host Mount Vernon Nazarene University. The men tip off at 2 and the
women at 4.
