Lakewood, N.J.- Three Lions netted double-digit scoring efforts Thursday night as Georgian Court University returned to the scene of its last outing (331 days ago), Dominican College, for the 2021 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) men's basketball lid-lifter.
GCU dropped a 76-68 decision to the host-Chargers, the first outing for each squad since taking the floor against each other in the CACC Championship Tournament quarterfinals last March (3/3/20).
"We we needed to knock off the rust in the first half and get back to the flow of playing basketball against some new faces," said Lions' head coach,
Terrence Stewart. "We played better in the second half and had some good looks that just didn't go down. We gave up too many easy baskets, our defense has to be better Saturday."
Georgian Court (0-1, 0-1 CACC) opened the night by pouring in the first five points of the game before the home team rallied for a 35-17 spurt, which concluded with a three-pointer from
Tedrick Wilcox (So.-Pawtucket, R.I.) 29 seconds before intermission.
The Lions countered with a modest 12-8 run to open the second stanza as a pair of
Kim Speller free throws inched the visitors to within six (43-37) at the 15:57 mark. The Chargers (1-0, 1-0 CACC) responded in a big way as DC delivered a 31-20 answer of its own to build a game-high surplus of 17 (74-57) with 3:53 to go. GCU, who actually topped Dominican by a basket (43-41) in the second half, outscored the victors the rest of the way, 11-2, but to no avail.
Davon Floyd and Speller (seven rebounds) poured in 16 and 15 points, respectively, while
Shane Williams delivered 13 of his own (including a trio of three-pointers).
Wahaad Johnson (Jr.-Brooklyn, N.Y.) netted a game-best 27 points in the win.
Jalen Burgess (Sr.-Springfield Gardens, N.Y.) provided a double-double consisting of 16 points and 10 boards.
Daniel Grant (Sr.-Middletown, N.Y.) and Wilcox each tallied 11 points in the effort.
GCU now prepares for its home opener as Nyack College comes to campus this Saturday at 12:00 p.m.
