LANCASTER, Pa. – A day removed from netting 67 first half points in a 108-87 win over Wilkes, the Wesleyan men's basketball team won again convincingly, but this time it was the team defense that stole the show. Wesleyan's defense completely frustrated the Diplomats' shooters and limited the host Franklin & Marshall to just 26.2 percent shooting in a 79-47 win for the Cardinals that sealed the Sponaugle Tournament title on Thursday afternoon. Wesleyan (11-1) wins their fourth straight game while also sealing their third regular season tournament title of the season.
Wesleyan led wire-to-wire in this one as the Cardinals jumped out to a 17-6 lead in the first 4:28 of the contest as
Sam Peek '22 and
Nicky Johnson '25 combined for 13 of the 17 points in the scoring run. That double-digit Cardinal lead would sustain for the majority of the game as the closest Franklin & Marshall would get, past the midway point of the first half, was a 10-point margin.
A 9-0 run over a 4+ minute span increased Wesleyan's lead to 27-13 with eight minutes remaining in the half and the advantage grew to as many as 18 points in the stanza before ultimately heading into the locker room with a 40-25 halftime lead.
The Diplomats showed some fight early in the second half as the Cardinal lead was cut to 10 with 16:33 remaining but a 9-0 Wesleyan run erased the Franklin & Marshall rally attempt. Wesleyan's lead hovered around 20 points before an 11-0 run towards the later stages saw the lead balloon to over 30 points before the game ended with Wesleyan on top, 79-47.
Peek led all scorers with 20 points on 7-for-11 shooting with seven rebounds and three assists, earning Tournament MVP honors. The senior guard continues a torrid stretch as he posted his fourth straight 20+ point game as he is averaging 23.3 points on 56.5 percent shooting in those four games.
Johnson joined Peek on the All-Tournament Team as the first-year missed two shots (on 13 attempts) for the two-game tournament. He was a perfect 5-of-5 from the floor on his way to a 13-point effort to go along with four rebounds in 28 minutes. This came in Johnson's fourth straight start while it is just one day removed from a career-high 19 points last night in a win over Wilkes.
Jordan James '22 was productive in just 19 minutes of action, finishing with 10 points, six rebounds, three blocks and one steal.
Gabe Ravetz '23 came off the bench and tallied 13 points (5-10 FG) with a game-high eight rebounds, three assists and two steals in just 21 minutes.
Shackylle Dezonie '23 added 11 points and four rebounds.
Wesleyan continues an extended span of road games as three straight and five of the next six games involving the Cardinals are being played away from home. Next up is a much-anticipated Little 3 showdown on Monday night (5 PM) at Amherst.
