ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. - The NC Wesleyan College men's basketball team rolled to their first win of the season on Thursday afternoon as they put away rival Greensboro College 92-71 in their home opener.
The Bishops were led by 1,000 point career scorer, senior Damon McDowell, as he finished with 24 points while junior forward Isaiah Lewis had a career game as well scoring a career-high of 26 points with 10 rebounds and 3 blocks for his first double-double of 2020. McDowell also added 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals.
Wesleyan got off to a fast start in this one running out to a 27-7 lead midway through the first half. However, the Pride of GC would rally going on a 33-20 run to finish the half down by just 7 points to the Bishops at the break.
NCWC would then go on a run to start the second half quickly jumping out to a 21-point lead at 69-48 with 13 minutes to play. Greensboro would not be able to climb within 17 points the rest of the way as Wesleyan would go on to win their first game of the season. This was also the Bishop's first D-3 game of the year so far.
Wesleyan shot 43 percent overall for the game and scored 21 points off 18 GC turnovers. Finishing in double-figure scoring for the game other than McDowell and Lewis were sophomore guards Brayden Dixon and Tim Pettiford who each scored 10 points apiece with Dixon also adding 7 rebounds and 5 assists and Pettiford bringing down 8 rebounds. Freshman guards Khalid Chavis-Hinds and Austin Manley also tallied 6 points apiece while Chavis added 5 rebounds and 3 assists as well.
The Bishops would go on to out-rebound the Pride 60-34 as well.
The Bishops, at 1-2, will next head to the mountains of Western NC to battle another D-1 foe in Appalachian St. on Sunday at 4 PM.