NEWARK, Del. - - A track meet broke out at the WU Athletics Complex on Friday night, as Bridgeport's run and gun style led to a 101-92 victory over the Wilmington University men's basketball team in nonconference action.
It took a moment or two for the Wildcats (1-2) to get up to speed with the full court pressure and run and gun style offense of the Purple Knights (3-0), but once they did settle in Bridgeport had already had the game under control.
The Wildcats coughed the ball up 14 times in the first half, including seven in the opening six minutes of action. Despite that, the Wildcats had the game tied at 18-18 with 10:30 left in the half before the Purple Knights rattled off 12 straight to lead 30-18 with 8:17 showing on the clock.
Dawson Grinnage laid one home to cut the deficit to 41-30, but the Knights scored seven straight en route to a 9-3 spurt to take a 50-33 lead. Jordan Harding closed the half with a three, sending the Wildcats into the break down 50-36.
Alvin West hit a three-pointer to cut the deficit to 60-45 early in the second half, but the Knights took their first 20-point lead of the game moments later, 65-45 with 14:24 left in the game.
Denzil Haynes hit a three-pointer of his own to cut the deficit to 16, 79-63 with 9:15 to play, but Bridgeport had an answer for every Wildcat push, as they came down and grabbed an offensive rebound and hit a three-pointer to deflate the Complex a little more.
Bridgeport eventually took their largest lead of the game, 97-73, with another three-pointer with 3:55 left. Bridgeport hit the 100-point mark for the third straight game with 1:10 left in the game while the Wildcats cut into the final deficit down the stretch.
Jermaine Head came off the bench to score 31 points on 12-of-18 shooting, hitting four three-pointers to go with five rebounds, six assists, and five steals. Tyler Norwood added 22 points on 9-of-15 shooting while adding four assists. Denzil Hayne and Jordan Harding added 11 points each in the loss. Dawson Grinnage led all players with 11 rebounds.
Half of the Wildcats' buckets were assisted on (17-of-34) in the game, as the Wildcats hot 50 percent from the floor (34-for-68). They hit eight three-pointers (13 in the game) and only turned the ball over four times in the second half.
The Wildcats return to action on Sunday afternoon, when they head to the University of Delaware for an exhibition game at the Bob Carpenter Center. The battle against their First State but NCAA DI foe starts at 2:00 p.m.
Tickets for the event can be found here: https://bluehens.com/sports/2018/8/22/mbk-ticket-information.aspx
