Guilford College’s men’s basketball team beat the University of the South (Sewanee) in 2019’s NCAA Division III Men’s Basketball Tournament First Round on Friday night, 97-59. The game was played at home with 1,207 fans filling Ragan-Brown Field House. Guilford advances to the second round and will face Wittenberg University Saturday at 7 p.m.

Senior forward Marcus Curry lead all scorers with 17 points on seven-of-eight shooting. Junior forward Kyler Gregory added a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Logan (14), senior forward Carson Long (10) and first-year Liam Ward (10) rounded out the five Quakers in double digits.

“We were on point,” said head coach Tom Palombo  “We executed really well offensively.”

Fans were swinging around white Guilford towels and red and silver shiny pom poms. Families and friends were enjoying popcorn and watching the teams play.

“The crowd gave us a lot of energy and that certainly helped us make more shots,” said sophomore guard Joah Logan.

Guilford started the game with quickly scoring the game’s first 11 points of the game. At the end of the first half the score was 56-30, with Guilford in the lead. The hot-shooting Quakers shot 61.1 percent from the field and was nine-of-14 from the three-point line. Logan was three-for-three from beyond the arc and had 11 points in the first half.

“I just know I have been in a slump all season just with shooting the ball, and when we got to the gym I knew we needed some shots tonight,” said Logan.

The largest lead in the game was in the second half when Guilford led by 39 with under two minutes to play. The Quakers led from the tip-off and kept extending the lead throughout the game.

Guilford shot 37-65 (56.9 %) from the field. Sewanee was held to 33.8 percent shooting and Guilford won the rebounding battle 51-24. Sewanee shot six-of-33 from the three-point line, including three-of-20 in the second half. The Quakers picked up 12 offensive rebounds and scored 22 second chance points.

Sewanee first-year forward Jordan Warlick and senior guard Hunter Buescher were the only two Tigers in double figures. Warlick had 14 points and 5 rebounds, Buescher put up 11 points on four-of-16 shooting.

The Quakers face Wittenberg which beat Emory University 100-88 Friday. The winner of the game advances to the next round and will be one of the final 16 teams remaining.