WHEELING — Linsly’s Stifel Fieldhouse hosted an OVAC Consolation game Friday night between the homestanding Cadets and University Hawks. By way of an intense defensive effort — and a 25-point, 10-rebound night from junior D’arrae Goodwin — Linsly earned a 69-48 victory over the visiting Hawks.
Through the first few minutes, the two teams traded baskets, but while Linsly continued to score, the Cadets’ defense hindered the Hawks for the rest of the first quarter. After being tied 2-2, 4-4 and 6-6, Linsly led 19-8 after one.
“Our defense is pretty good, I really liked our defense,” Linsly head coach Dave Wojcik said. “We forced the issue, I thought we wore them down a little bit, conditioning-wise. Our defense was good, which created easy opportunities on the other end for us.”
The second quarter was a near-replica of the first, the Cadets leading 33-15 at the half.
University’s offense roused themselves in the second half, more than doubling their first-half point total in the third quarter, Ethan Jackson scoring six points by way of a 3-pointer and an and-one to play the Cadets to a stalemate in the third.
A near even-second half did nothing to get the Hawks out of the hole they’d dug themselves into in the first half though, and Linsly rolled to 18-1 while University moved to 8-10.
Jackson, Coen Henderson and James Fortney-Garbart led the Hawks with eight points apiece. Carson Ford led his team in both rebounds and assists, with six and three, respectively.
University shot 43% from the field and committed 20 turnovers. The Hawks were just 7-22 from the floor with 11 turnovers in the first half.
For Linsly, Goodwin’s performance was followed by nine from both Naseef Lubowa and Jonah Vaysbakh. Vaysbakh also totaled five assists and three steals.
Linsly shot just over 40% from the field, but 53% on their two-point attempts. The Cadets forced plenty of turnovers, grabbed 10 offensive rebounds and were a near-perfect 10-11 from the foul line to make their shooting percentage just a footnote on the night.
University travels to face Elkins on Feb. 15. Linsly will host Western Reserve Academy on Feb. 13.
By NICK HENTHORN/The Intelligencer
BOX SCORE
Linsly 69, University 48
UNIVERSITY (48) – Garbart 4 0-0 8; Jackson 3 1-1 8; Coleman 3 0-0 6; Demidovish 1 1-2 3; Ford 1 0-0 2; Hudson 3 0-1 7; Karpinski 0 0-0 0; Kleeh 0 0-0 0; Henderson 4 0-0 8; Lewis 0 0-0 0; Brown 1 4-4 6; Totals 20 5-7 48. LINSLY (69) – Taylor 2 2-2 6; Lubowa 4 0-0 9; Vaysbakh 4 0-0 9; Kecman 0 0-0 0; Goodwin 9 5-5 25; Salazar 2 0-0 4; Murray 1 2-2 5; Gill 2 1-2 6; Custovic 0 0-0 0; Totals 25 10-11 69
Three-point goals: University 2 (Jackson, Hudson). Linsly 6 (Goodwin 2, Gill, Murray, Lubowa, Vaysbakh)
