ALBION, Mich. - The Manchester men's basketball team hung on for a thrilling 67-66 road victory against Albion College on Tuesday, November 21.
Albion jumped out to an early double digit lead in the opening half of Tuesday night's contest, but the Spartans battled their back to cut the Britons' lead to five points with 3:25 on the clock. A made layup by
Coy Hampton (Park Forest, Ill., Crete Monee) would bring Manchester within one point with just over a minute left to play in the first half, and a three-point shot from
Brendan Williams (Mishawaka, Ind., Mishawaka) would put the Spartans up 30-28 heading into halftime.
After a back-and-forth battle in the second half that saw multiple lead changes, the Britons were up by one point with just under two minutes left on the clock.
Zach Sawyer (Columbus, Ohio, Bishop Watterson) drained a jump shot in the paint to give the Spartans back the lead. As time ran out, the Britons would miss a last second layup to give Manchester the 67-66 win.
As a team, Manchester shot 42.1% with 28 points coming from the Spartans' bench. Manchester also held a 7-4 advantage in steals and a narrow 35-33 advantage in rebounds.
Bryant Smith (West Lafayette, Ind., Harrison) led the Black and Gold with 14 points, followed by
Zach Sawyer with 13 points, six assists, and five rebounds.
Ty Lynas (Crawfordsville, Ind., Crawfordsville) added nine points and two steals during Tuesday night's contest.
Coy Hampton,
Austin Willoughby (Greenwood, Ind., Whiteland Community), and
Ladarius Wallace (Jeff. Ind., Rock Creek Community Academy) each had seven points apiece.
Hampton also pulled down a team-high seven rebounds, while
Mitch Mendenhall (New Haven, Ind., Woodlan) added five rebounds for the Spartans.
Two Britons scored in double digits during Tuesday night's game. Nathan Steinman finished with 16 points, while AJ Barden had 11 points on the night. Jaylen Flaniken had seven rebounds and a block on the night. Albion falls to 2-2 overall on the season.
The Spartans, now 2-1 on the season, will travel to Kalamazoo College for a 7:00 p.m.
tipoff on Monday, November 27.
