ANGOLA, IND. – The #4 Trine University Men's Basketball team powered past Manchester in the second half of Monday afternoon's non-conference matchup to post a 58-37 victory.
Drew Moore made 5 of 7 second half field goals to lead the Thunder with 12 points. Trine improves to 9-1 overall while the Spartans drop to 6-5.
Both teams struggled offensively in the first half. Trine led 23-20 at the break after trailing most of the period. An 8-0 run behind layups from
Cam Smith,
Jayce Cusack and
Aidan Smylie gave the Thunder the lead. The Spartans responded with a three pointer to reclaim the advantage.
Emmanuel Megnanglo hammered home back to back dunks to give Trine a lead they would not surrender. Megnanglo would finish with 9 points and 13 rebounds.
Moore got things started in the second half, making two baskets of his own before finding Smith down low to stretch the lead to 8. Manchester made a jumper to cut the lead to five, Trine would go on a 26-5 run to take full control of the game. Five different players scored and Smylie added a long triple that ignited a large crowd of Thunder fans. Moore quickly added another, Trine then went back to work in the paint, where they scored 44 of their 58 points. Moore, Smith,
Nate Tucker, and
Logan McKenzie all added baskets in the paint to close out the contest.
Trine stays at home for their next two games, starting with their final nonconference game against Illinois Tech on Saturday, January 4
th at 2:00 p.m.
