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NEWARK, Del. - - The Wilmington University men's basketball team won its third straight game and fifth consecutive home game by holding off Lock Haven, 86-80, on Saturday afternoon at the WU Athletics Complex.
Another strong first half carried the Wildcats (5-4), who moved above .500 for the first time this season. They are 5-0 at home so far this season. The Wildcats raced out to as large as a 23-point lead late in the first half, thanks to shooting 63.3 percent from the floor and dominating the paint, 24-10, in the first half alone.
The Wildcats started by scoring the first eight points of the game, but they didn't take their first double digit lead of the game until an Asher Kemble putback, 18-8, with 13:01 to play in the half. Kaleb Hedgepeth and Caleb Matthews followed with buckets to put the Wildcats up 14 before an 8-0 run gave the Wildcats a 22-point lead with 8:30 to play. Amiri Stewart hit a three-pointer, Skip Burton put in a layup and Taalib Holloman hit another three-pointer to make it 35-13.
The Bald Eagles (3-4) cut the deficit to 16 but then Stewart hit a pair of layups and Caleb Matthews had a turnaround jumper to give the Wildcat their largest lead of the nigh, 44-21, with 3:26 to play before the break. But from there, the Bald Eagles went on a 14-4 run, including a three-pointer at the buzzer to only send the Wildcats into the break leading by 13 points, 48-35.
Lock Haven continued the run into the second half, starting the period on a 12-4 run to close the gap all the way to five points, 52-47, with 15:47 showing on the clock. The game hung within single digits for the next six minutes, with Lock Haven getting as close as four points, 62-58. But then the Wildcats went on a 10-0 run, highlighted by a Nalik Veasely old fashioned three-point play to get the Wildcats back up by double figures, 72-58, with 7:58 to play.
The Bald Eagles got to within nine points on several occasions, but the Wildcats had an answer each time until late in the game. The visitors got two from the line, a defensive stop and an offensive put back to get to within five, 83-78, with 1:31 to play, and then another offensive putback to close to within 84-80 with 32 seconds left on the clock. But Caleb Matthews was able to hit a pair of free throws to stem the tide and the Wilmington defense held on in the final 20 seconds to close the victory.
Lock Haven flipped the script on points in the paint in the second half, 28-22, and scored 13 second chance points to get back into the game.
The Wildcats had five players in double figures, led by Amiri Stewart's 23 points on 8-of-10 shooting. Nalik Veasley scored 13 points while adding 11 rebounds and two assists. Asher Kemble came off the bench to score 11 points while adding five rebounds and both Taalib Holloman and Caleb Matthews scored 10 points. Matthews finished with a team high six assists as well.
The Wildcats are on the road for their next four games, with two more before the holiday break. Both the men's and women's teams head to Queens (N.Y.) on Wednesday night for a nonconference doubleheader. The women are up first at 5:30 p.m., followed by the men at 7:30 p.m.
