Senior Tobi Akinsola’s career-high 26 points, hard-nosed team defense and the power and majesty of head coach Tom Palombo’s mustache led the Quakers (12-6, 6-3 Old Dominion Athletic Conference) to a marquee 64-61 win over previously undefeated and number two in the nation Virginia Wesleyan on “Stache Day,” Saturday Jan. 22.

Akinsola also had five rebounds and went 10 for 12 from the foul line in 24 minutes of work.

Guilford’s next highest scorer, junior Gabriel Lowder, had nine points and four rebounds.

“It was just a battle the whole way,” Akinsola said. “(Virginia Wesleyan) were fighting. They had a will to win. They’re a second-half team. They were down in the first half. We had a little bit of a run at the end, so we were fortunate enough to win.”

Senior TC Anderson had kind words to say of Akinsola’s career day. Anderson chipped in 4 points, four rebounds and four steals. He also defended the final 3-pointer to secure the Quakers’ victory.

“(Akinsola) was unstoppable. Unstoppable,” Anderson said. “He played against one of the most athletic guys in the league. He held his own like he does every night.”

Akinsola attributed handing the Marlins their first loss to the focus every member of the Quakers team has in each practice session.

“We try to do what we do in practice on the court on game day, so we carry that preparation over to the games,” Akinsola said. “We battle in practice. We go at it.”

Junior Justin Stafford was a mustachioed force of nature defensively, and scored seven points with an assist and a block, sporting an homage to Palombo on his upper lip.

“I think we played tremendous team defense,” Palombo said.

“I thought we played together really well on the defensive end, and we minimized our mistakes on the offensive end,” said Palombo. “We made some mistakes, but we were able to get the ball inside to Tobi, Brad (Monroe) and Justin Stafford. We were able to loosen it up on the perimeter outside.”

Sophomore Josh Pittman went 1-8 from the 3-point arc for 3 points, and had four assists, four rebounds and a steal.

“Josh didn’t have his best game today,” Palombo said. “He’s had some monster big games for us. He moved the ball around, didn’t turn it over and played good ‘D.'”

The Marlins were down by three points with less than 10 seconds to go. Tre’ Ford, who made three shots from beyond the arc in the game, was able to get the 3-pointer off over TC Anderson. However, it bounced harmlessly off the front of the rim.

“The way we play defense, people are going to be able to shoot threes on us,” Palombo said.

“They just won’t be able to get the rebound and they’ll have a hand in their face,” said Palombo. “TC played really good defense on the last play. He got a piece of that shot.”

“It was a huge win to beat a team that has been undefeated all year long and ranked number two in the country,” Palombo concluded. “But like I just told our guys, we still get to play on Wednesday. Wednesday’s game has equal value.”