Boxscore
TAKOMA PARK, Md. – After a dominating win in the first meeting back on Dec. 3, the Goldey-Beacom College men's basketball team struggled on the road against non-league opponent Washington Adventist University, but pulled away late to claim a 74-61 win and complete the series sweep.
The Lightning (11-3) have now won three straight and eight of their last nine. They finish their non-conference schedule with a mark of 6-3. Meanwhile, WAU fell to 2-10.
Senior forward Troy Esquilin led the way offensively, scoring a career-high 18 points on 8-for-10 from the field and 2-of-2 from the foul line. He also registered nine rebounds and two blocks.
Senior guard Kyle White scored 16 points while shooting an impressive 10-for-11 from the stripe, and junior forward Terrence Parkes tallied his seventh double-double of the season with 15 points and 13 rebounds. Junior guards Sam McDuffie and Azeez Ellegood scored 13 and 12, respectively.
Esquilin scored the game's first points for the Lightning with a layup off an Ellegood assist, but that would be the Lightning's only first-half lead as it was all Shock early on. WAU guard Darrick Williams was dominant off the bench, scoring 17 points in the first half alone on 8-of-10 from the field. The Shock shot a sizzling 60.7 percent from the field while holding GBC to 40 percent shooting and no three-point field goals on three attempts. The Lightning would trail by 11 (39-28) at the half – their largest halftime deficit this season.
But a determined Lightning team came running out of the gates to start the second half, going on a 12-2 run and closing the gap to just two, 42-40 nearly five minutes into the closing frame. Branden Washington's (seven points, three rebounds) layup upped the Shock's lead to four, and Jamie Newton's layup at 12:56, following a 1-of-2 trip at the line by GBC's White, increased the lead to five.
Trailing 48-44, the Lightning went inside to Esquilin who converted a layup, and then following a WAU turnover, Ellegood hit a crucial three-point field goal at the 11:25 mark to give the Lightning their first lead of the game (49-48) since the beginning of the first half.
From there, the lead changed hands eight times before GBC took the lead for good with two Parkes free-throws to go up 57-56. Ellegood was a perfect 8-for-8 and White was 4-for-4 from the foul line down the stretch and Parkes added a couple layups to seal the win as the Lightning scored the game's final eight points to claim the 74-61 victory.
GBC is off for a week before it hosts Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference foe and intra-city rival Wilmington University on Jan. 19 at 8 p.m. in the Joseph West Jones Center.
