Box Score Richmond, Ind. – The Transylvania men's basketball team cruised to its 11th straight victory with a 92-72 win against the Earlham College Quakers on Wednesday night at Schuckman Court.
Freshman guard Gabe Schmitt led the Pioneers in scoring with 18 points on a sharp 5-for-6 night from the field, while hitting 4-for-5 from outside.
The Pioneers as a whole were offensively brilliant for most of the night as they pulled away early against Earlham with a 55-point first half, shooting 64.5 percent. Transylvania knocked down 10-of-18 shots from three-point range in the first half compared to 1-of-6 made triples by the host team.
Freshman guard Spencer McKinney scored all 12 of his points in the first half, mustering 4-for-5 shooting from the field. Senior guard Alex Jones, the reigning Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Player of the Week was quiet in the scoring column with five points, but played the role of facilitator extraordinaire on Wednesday as he added 12 assists. Jones has now tallied 22 assists over his past two games.
The Pioneers arrived to Richmond ready to do business as they zoomed out to a 12-0 lead and later a 16-2 advantage. A layup from sophomore guard Kyle Gullett put the Pioneers on the board, and Jones followed with a three. Schmitt added two consecutive three-pointers to push the lead to 11-0, allowing the Pioneers to lead the game wire-to-wire. Transylvania eventually grew the lead to 38 points in the second half before head coach Brian Lane sent in his reserves for some valuable minutes.
Sophomore forward Bo Schuh added 10 points off the bench as he knocked down two 3-balls; the Pioneers hit 16 three-pointers total in the game.
The win moved Transylvania to 13-5 overall and 8-3 in HCAC play. The Pioneers currently sit in fourth place, one game back of three teams in Anderson, Hanover, and Mt. St. Joseph who are all tied for first place in the conference at 9-2.
Transylvania has a chance on Saturday to break up the logjam when it hosts the Anderson University Ravens. The Pioneers will try to hold serve at home after the Ravens won the first meeting on December 10. Tipoff for Saturday's game is set for 4:00 p.m. as the second game of an afternoon doubleheader.
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