Written by Jack Cummer
The No. 1 Indiana Wesleyan men’s basketball team pushed their win streak to four games on Saturday afternoon, defeating Olivet (Mich.) 94-59.
The game was never a close one, as the Wildcats scored the first 12 points of the game and never lead by less than 10 points the rest of the way.
The Wildcats were up by 33 points at the half by a score of 59-26. The second half was much different, however, as Indiana Wesleyan only outscored Olivet by 2 points with mostly bench players on the court for a majority of the half.
Indiana Wesleyan was led behind the play of Lane Mahurin (jr) who had 22 points in the game and in the process scored his 1,000th career point.
Lee Gardner (sr) for Olivet was the overall high man with 23 points and 8 rebounds and was one of only two players for the Comets to be in double figures for points, the other being Eric Ewing (jr) with 11.
The Wildcats contributed well on both sides of the ball, having four players in double figures. Johnny Marlin (sr) had a double-double with 11 points and 10 assists, while Bob Peters (jr) and Jacob Johnson (so) had 17 and 12 points, respectively.
The game saw a lot of fouls and poor three point shooting from both teams. Kavon Thompson (so) of Olivet fouled out with over 7 minutes left in the game.
Olivet was 20 of 21 (95.2%) from the free throw line while Indiana Wesleyan was 25 of 32 (78.1%). The Comets, however, were only 1-13 (7.7%) from 3 point range in comparison to the Wildcats, who were only 7 of 19 (36.8%).
When asked about the play of Mahurin, Head Coach Greg Tonagel was all praise.
“Lane came out awfully aggressive today,” he said. “When he has that edge to him, he is just impossible to guard and adds another dimension to our offense. He has done a great job here and is getting more versatile.”
Indiana Wesleyan improved to 10-1 on the season while Olivet continued its winless ways, falling to 0-7 overall.
Indiana Wesleyan’s next game is on Dec. 18 at Luckey Arena against Rocky Mountain (Mont.) at 2 p.m.