UPLAND, Ind. – The Marian men's basketball team opened up Crossroads League play in dominating fashion, downing Taylor 87-67 Saturday afternoon inside Odle Arena. With the win, the Knights move to 6-0 overall and 1-0 in conference play.
Marian jumped out to the 12-5 lead to start the game after Taeshon Cherry knocked down the jumper. Taylor responded with a pair of threes to get within one, but the first half was all Marian in this one as they never let go of their lead.
Nolan Foster and Brody Whitaker each canned a jumper to put their team back up five, but a pair of free throws by the Trojans cut the Knights' lead back to 16-13. With a little over halfway remaining in the first half, Hayden Langkabel cashed in a three to fuel a 10-2 run that would extend the Marian lead to 12 points. TU's Jason Hubbard hit two free throws to end the run before the Marian offense would strike back on a Josh Bryan three.
Taylor tried to scrape down the lead to close out the half, but the offense put together by the Knights proved to be too much as the Marian lead grew to 47-24 with 1:56 left to play in the half after Bryan swished in his second triple of the half. Even with the Trojans scoring the last two points of the half, it was the Knights having the 47-26 advantage at halftime.
Cherry got things started for Marian as he hit the first basket of the second half, before TU had a quick answer with a three on the next play. The first five minutes of the second half was a lot of back and forth between the two teams until Taylor went on an 11-0 run led behind Hubbard's three triples. Luke Heady put a stop to run with a good jumper of his own, but it was the Trojans taking the momentum and cutting the Marian lead to single digits at 62-53.
Marian found their groove again as Langkabel put one in from three to top off a 15-5 run and take the 20-point lead at 83-63 with 2:16 left to play. With a 20-point lead at hand and under two minutes to play, the Knights were able to hold of the Trojans with ease to win 87-67.
The Knights shot a hot 56.1% from the field and 36% from three, with four players scoring in double figures. Langkabel led all scorers with 24 points, while Cherry added 15 points and Harvey had 14 points to go along with six assists. Bryan had 10 points, with Foster adding eight points and five rebounds. Gohmann pulled down a game-high nine rebounds to add to his seven points.
Marian will return to action on Tuesday as they travel to Spring Arbor for a 6 PM tip.
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