By: Jared McMurry
The Gardner-Webb men’s basketball team took on two opponents over the weekend at home, coming out on the plus side in both contests.
Friday night the Runnin’ Bulldogs battled Toccoa Falls in a high scoring affair. Toccoa hung around early, but Gardner-Webb was able to pull away late for a 100-61 victory behind Dylan Poston’s six consecutive threes in the second half.
On Saturday night the Runnin’ Bulldogs welcomed Thomas College from Georgia to Paul Porter Arena. Gardner-Webb was able to get off to a fast start and cruise to an 82-66 win to improve their record to 5-4 on the season.
Photo by: Megan Hartman
Coach Tim Craft felt like his team did a good job defensively with the unique matchup that Thomas presented. Playing four or five guards at a time meant that post players would be matched up with quicker players. “I felt like we did a pretty solid job defensively for the most part,” he said.
The back to back games came after a road loss to highly ranked Arizona and before a couple of more tough non-conference match-ups for the Runnin’ Bulldogs.
Craft was happy with how his team used these games to help work on things before they had a week in between games due to fall semester finals. “It was important to come home and get some guys in the game that hadn’t played much in our first seven games,” he said.
In the win over Thomas, Tyrell Nelson led the Runnin’ Bulldogs in scoring with 18 points, while Jerome Hill added 17.
Gardner-Webb will be back in action next Saturday at home as they battle Furman.
Click here to check out photos from the game. Click here to view photos from Friday night’s game against Taccoa Falls College.