Memphis, Tennessee ~ Rhodes College reached the double digit plateau tonight with a 91-68 home victory against Free Will Baptist. Rhodes used a hot shooting first half and solid defense to build a 24 point halftime lead and never looked back. The Lynx led wire to wire and every player suited up scored.
Rhodes opened the scoring on its first possession off a short jumper by Reid Hamilton (Birmingham, AL). Baskets by Nathan Ollie (Memphis, TN) and Andrew Galow (Oswego, IL) on its next two possessions gave the Lynx a quick 6-0 lead. After a steal and layup by Andyshea Saberioon (Houston, TX) the Lynx had their first double digit just three minutes into the game. Free Will hit a three pointer at the 16:42 mark to close the gap to nine, but never got any closer. An offensive rebound put back by Josh Arant (Charlotte, NC) made the lead 11 at 16-5. Andrew Sillyman made one of two free throw attempts as the Lynx led 25-9 at the 11:15 mark of the first half. Two minutes later Larry Cunningham, JR. (St. Charles, MO) scored a turnaround jumper to give the Lynx a 17 point advantage. With 5:30 left, freshman Joey Miller (Athens, GA) scored a running one hander to give the Lynx an 18 point cushion. From there the Lynx pushed the lead to 24 and headed into halftime with a 47-23 lead.
Free Will opened the second half with a 12-4 run to cut the lead to 16, but a basket by Hamilton off a Saberioon assist pushed the lead back to 18. A layup by Ollie at the 14:43 mark gave the Lynx a 21 point lead. After a Flames basket cut the lead to 19, Ollie responded with a three pointer to push the lead to 22 points. Chris Eberle (Cincinnati, OH) made a three pointer at the 12:42 mark to give the Lynx a 22 point lead. A Kory Kilpatrick (Athens, GA) three pointer gave the Lynx a 73-49 lead and Rhodes lead 75-51 with 9:17 left before a Free Will run over the next five minutes cut the lead to 16. A basket by Theo Hartwell (Charleston, SC) pushed the lead back to 18, and Rhodes closed out the game scoring eight of the last eleven points, finishing with a 91-68 victory.
Rhodes placed four players in double figures on the night. Hamilton led the way with 20, Ollie scored 15, and Galow and Saberioon scored 12 and 11 respectively. Rhodes won the rebounding war with a 46-28 advantage including 16 offensive rebounds. Galow led the way with 9 boards and Hamilton recorded 8. Jonathan Smith (Bartlett, TN) canned two of the Lynx seven three pointers. Rhodes shot 50% from beyond the arc for the game (7 of 14) and 51% from the field overall. Rhodes also had four players record at least 4 assists on the night with Ollie leading the way with 5.
BOX SCORE
Rhodes will be back in action this weekend as they travel to Greencastle, IN to face SCAC foe DePauw University on Friday night. Sunday afternoon they travel to Danville, KY to face Centre College to close out the regular season. Friday, February 26th they are off to Jackson, Mississippi for the SCAC tournament where they will face off against Austin College in the first round.
