Las Vegas, Nev. – The Transylvania men's basketball team tipped off their trip to the South Point Resort Arena with a 77-71 defeat to the Whittier College (Calif.) Poets on Tuesday afternoon.
Brandon Cromwell posted a career-high 23 points to go with five rebounds, but the Pioneers were unable to field a full comeback over the Poets, who used an 18-2 run which spanned the end of the first half and start of the second half to hold off the Pioneers at the 2021 D3Hoops.com Classic opener.
Whittier improved to 5-4 on the season while the Pioneers fell to 6-3 overall in the 2021-22 campaign.
Cromwell turned in an efficient night of 8 for 13 shooting from the floor, nailing all four of his free throw attempts and hitting on 3 of 5 triples, but the Pioneers' offense was largely cold, shooting 32 percent from the field and 29 percent from three-point range.
In the first 18 minutes of the game, the Pioneers dished out equally potent defense to hold the Poets at bay. Whittier finished the night shooting worse than Transylvania's three-point standard, only mustering 7 for 26 shooting from outside for a 27 percent clip.
The Poets made up the difference at the free throw line, where the SCIAC representatives connected on 30 of 34 charity tosses to Transy's 12 for 19 mark from free throw range.
The first half featured a call-and-response of mini-runs by both teams in a defensively-oriented period. Cromwell provided the first five points of the day and Colby Napier followed up with a bucket to supercharge his afternoon for a 7-2 Pioneer salvo.
Whittier swung back to forge a 12-10 lead but Napier teed off from outside with a pair of buckets to put the Pioneers back on top at 15-12, and Cromwell scored again to put the Pioneers ahead at 17-12. The Poets responded to outscore Transy 8-1 over the next three and a half minutes to climb back in front, 20-18. The big man tandem of Luke Schroeder and Hunter Penn surfaced as Schroeder sank a field goal and Penn nailed two free throws to give the Pioneers their last lead off the half, 22-20 with 7:16 left in the half.
The Pioneers cooled off as Whittier found its three-point shot, closing the final 6:20 on a 15-6 run to claim a 35-28 halftime lead.
The Poets used another burst out of the halftime break to clinch a 45-32 lead six minutes into the second half. Cromwell led a furious response with a pair of free throws, followed by a Matthew Teague drive and a triple from Ethan Hudson to trim the Poet lead to 45-39 with 12:32 remaining. Napier added a layup to cap off a 9-0 run to slice the Whittier advantage to four points.
The Pioneers continued to thin the margin to four points multiple times, but Whittier emerged on a 6-0 run to surge ahead by nine points with less than six minutes to go. Transy aspired to extend the game but Whittier made its free throws down the stretch to stave off the Pioneers.
Jack Patton led the Pioneers with five assists, adding four points and three rebounds while Hunter Penn paced the Pioneers with eight rebounds.
The Pioneers will return to action at South Point tomorrow to face the No. 8 Marietta College (Ohio) Pioneers in a Great Lakes Region clash. Tip-off in the all-Pioneer matchup is set for 8:00 p.m Eastern time / 5:00 p.m. local time.
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