It was an up and down game for the Elon University men’s basketball team on Friday night, Nov. 7 when it squared off for an exhibition matchup against the Emory & Henry College Wasps.
In its first live-action game since a Southern Conference Tournament loss to Western Carolina University this past March, the Phoenix started out slow but managed to pull away in the second half, beating the Wasps 90-50 at Alumni Gym.
Elon head coach Matt Matheny was optimistic about his team’s performance but recognized the youth and diversity of the roster.
“This is brand new team,” he said. “We’re going to play differently. We have different strengths but we did a lot of good things offensively. Defensively, we had spurts and we have a lot of positives to work off of.”
To start out the game, Elon found itself in a 12-5 hole before going on a 13-0 run. From there, the Phoenix never lost the lead with freshmen guardsDmitri Thompson and Elijah Bryant leading the scoring charge with 14 and 12 points, respectively.
“We stuck with the game plan,” Bryant said. “Coach Matheny told us to keep on attacking, my teammates gave me the ball and I was able to hit the shot.”
After a shaky first half, Elon burst out of the locker room with an 18-0 run to start the second half. Almost everyone on the roster contributed, with all but five players registering a point.
“We pressured the ball better,” Matheny said. “We made them play a little faster than they wanted to and that created turnovers. By creating turnovers, we got a lot of fast break points and it worked out in our favor in the second half.”
Elon will open its regular season next Friday, Nov. 14 against Florida Atlantic University in Alumni Gym at 8 p.m.