LAWRENCE, Kan. --- The McPherson College men's basketball team closed out its pre-holiday schedule with a 73-55 win at Haskell Indian Nations University Thursday night.
After a back-and-forth start to the contest, the Bulldogs (7-8) surged into lead late in the period to lead 34-27 at the break.
McPherson caught fire from behind the arc in the second half. The Bulldogs pushed the lead out to 20 points on the play of Aaron Bachura, who came off the bench to lead McPherson with a game-high 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting, including four 3-pointers.
Grant Raleigh added 11 points and three assists, while Chris Crook finished with nine points and five rebounds despite shooting just 2-of-12 from the field with one 3-pointer. Grant Munsen also scored nine ponts off the bench.
Garrett Owen, DeAndre Henson and Thomas Butler all finished with a game-high seven rebounds, while Ryan O'Hara had four points, a team-best four assists and three rebounds.
As a team, the Bulldogs shot 40.7 percent (24-of-59) from the field, 32.0 percent (8-of-25) from 3-point range and 89.5 percent (17-of-19) at the free-throw line. McPherson also won the battle on the boards, 43-33, including a 12-8 edge on the offensive glass, and had a 15-4 edge in points off turnovers.
Haskell nearly matched McPherson from the field, shooting 22-of-62 (35.5 percent), but made just five of 26 attempts from behind the arc. The Indians also struggled to get to the free throw line, attempting just seven in the game and making six.
Bryon Elledge led Haskell with 12 points on 4-of-10 shooting with a 3-pointer. He was also 3-of-4 at the free throw line, had four rebonds, two assists and two steals. T'salidi Seqouia added 10 points and four rebounds, while Nakia Hendricks added six points and a team-high six rebounds off the bench.
"We needed that," remarked head coach Tim Swartzendruber. "I thought we guarded early and took them out of their offensive flow. We had a great stretch in the second half where we made a bunch of baskets and were able to open it up. I thought our bench was really big tonight -- Bachura, Owen, Taylor Ellison, O'Hara, Munsen, Gurley, all of the guys that played tonight really gave us quality minutes. I think that a strength of this team is our bench and it was great to seem them come through tonight. It's obviously a great way to go into Christmas break. Certainly, we feel like we've competed with some other good teams. It's good to go into break on a positive note."
McPherson returns to the court on New Year's Eve with a 2 p.m. contest at Baker University in Baldwin City, Kan. It will be the final nonconference game of the year for the Bulldogs.
