[Men's Basketball] Men's Basketball's white hot shooting leads to 105-82 rout of Ottawa

He wasn't the leading scorer or rebounder and was just 3 for 10 shooting on the night.

 

But Brayden White (SO/Topeka, Kan.) made his presence known in many other ways and, according to his coach Anthony Monson, was the main reason Kansas Wesleyan played its best game of the season.

Led by White's pit-bull determination on both ends of the court the entire game, the Coyotes jump to a big lead early in the game and never looked back in rolling to a 105-82 thrashing of Ottawa in a Kansas Conference game Wednesday night at Mabee Arena.

 

Their third victory in a row, fifth in their last six game and eighth in their last 10 KCAC games moved the Coyotes into sole possession of fourth place with a 12-7 record, 14-9 overall. It was the first time KWU had scored 100 points in regulation since Feb. 2, 2013, against Bethel.

 

Ottawa, which entered the contest tied with KWU, fell to fifth place with an 11-8 record.

"Brayden White set the tone for us," Monson said. "Just his aggressiveness, offensively and defensively, completely caught Ottawa off guard. You could see they didn't know what to do because he typically doesn't do that.

 

"When he's aggressive you can't just focus on (James) Brooks, (Marquis) Kraemer, (A.J.) Range and those guys. He makes everybody a better player and I thought he was a big reason that we got off to the start we did and why we had the success we did tonight."

 

Wesleyan raced to an 18-10 lead at the start with White scoring five points and wreaking havoc on the defensive end. Leading 32-23 with 4:50 left, the Coyotes closed the half on a 20-5 run and had doubled up the Braves, 52-26, at the break.

 

Wesleyan erased any doubts about the outcome by opening the second half with a 24-11 burst and led 76-37 with 14 minutes left.

 

Monson pulled his front line players with six minutes left and KWU surpassed the century mark on Brendan Ganaway's basket with 3:02 remaining.

 

"The first half we got great possessions every time down the floor," Monson said. "We had only two turnovers the first half, so when you're making them guard you for 20-plus seconds on every possession, that's a good start.

 

"Defensively, we didn't allow them to get into the middle of the paint and we didn't foul. Every point they scored the first half was earned, we didn't give them any freebies."

 

The Coyotes forced Ottawa into 19 turnovers – 14 the first half – which led to 32 points. KWU had 14 turnovers, which produced 16 Ottawa points.

 

The Coyotes shot a sizzling 56.3 percent from the field (40 of 71), but were even better the second half, shooting 60.6 percent (20 of 33). They were 11 of 25 from 3-point range for the game.

 

Brooks scored a game-high 24 points, 17 the first half, and was 4 of 10 from 3-point range. Jordan McNelly (JR/Salina, Kan,) continued his offensive surge with 17 points on 6 of 10 shooting, giving him 38 points in his last two outings. White and AJ Range (SO/Junction City, Kan.) each scored 10. White also had four assists, three steals and only one turnover.

 

Ottawa shot 41.5 percent (27 of 63), including 6 of 24 beyond the arc, and was led by Mason McDow's 16 points. Isaiah Palmer, the Braves' leading scorer, finished with seven points, 15 below his season average.

 

"Even though he's left-handed he loves to go to his right hand off the dribble and we did a good job keying on that," Monson said. "We kept him in front of us, nothing was ever easy for him."

 

"We did a good job of being super efficient. It was a great team effort, they played their hearts out, they did a great job and it was great to get everybody in the game tonight."

 

The Coyotes are back in Mabee Arena again Saturday for a game against No. 20-ranked Friends. The Falcons (15-5 KCAC, 19-6 overall) trounced McPherson 95-68 Wednesday in McPherson.