When the Westminster men match up with Greenville, it typically turns into a shootout.
This was the case Thursday night as the Blue Jays defeated the Panthers 133-114, led by four 20-point performances. Ethan Thompson scored a season-high 26 points in 22 minutes off the bench, Landon Harrison followed with a season-high 25 points, Tre Kempker added career-high 24, and Jaxon Althaus had 20 points.
The Blue Jays (5-10, 1-3 SLIAC) shot a season-high 71.6 percent on 53 made field goals — just two shy of the single-game program record 55 set on Dec. 4, 2019, in a 132-131 loss at Greenville — for their first win this season in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. The 133 points fell three shy of the program record of 136 set on Jan. 21, 2019, in a 136-125 victory against the Panthers at Historic Gym. Thursday’s game marks the fourth straight meeting one of the teams reached at least 130 points.
While Westminster fell short of setting single-game scoring records, it did just that as a facilitating team, finishing with 45 assists compared with Greenville’s 16. Harrison recorded his ninth career double-double and second this season with a game-high 10 assists — his first career 10-assist game. Emil Spriggs followed him with his nine assists, and Althaus added eight assists.
Westminster scored 17 of its 20 field goals in the first half off assists but trailed 56-53 at halftime as 19 of its 29 turnovers also happened in the first half. Greenville’s Cam Irvin knocked down three of the team’s seven 3-pointers to lead the Panthers (1-15, 0-5 SLIAC) with 15 in the first half while one Blue Jay hadn’t scored in double-digits. Greenville had its biggest lead at 51-44 with 3:33 left in the first half before Westminster was able to get as close as two points prior to halftime.
The second half is where the Blue Jays exploded, blistering the Panthers with 80 points on 80 percent shooting from the field. Westminster went on a 7-0 run to near the beginning of the half to take a 62-58 lead with 17:26 to go but wouldn’t see its first double-digit lead until halfway through second half, when Harrison put back the offensive rebound of a 92-82 advantage.
Greenville pulled within three points at 94-91 after a 3-pointer seconds later, but the Blue Jays went to the free-throw line and knocked down their free shots to take a double-digit lead the rest of the way.
Westminster tries for its first home victory next at 3 p.m. Saturday against Spalding (5-12, 3-2 SLIAC).