Warriors Down TU with Strong Second Half
FORT WAYNE, Ind. – Taking the court for the first time in nearly three weeks, the Taylor men’s basketball team found itself in a dogfight with Indiana Tech, before an extended second-half run from the hosts tilted the game away from the Trojans in the eventual 88-74 defeat.
Taylor rebounded from a sluggish start, using a 17-8 stretch to erase an early 10-2 deficit and claimed its lone lead of the contest at 19-18 on a triple from Gavin Yoon.
The game remained close through the duration of the opening stanza, with Indiana Tech taking a 38-34 edge to the break.
A three from Zach Baugher opened the scoring in the second period and a hoop from CJ Penha drew the Trojans even at 39-39 early into the second half. Four-straight points from Jason Hubbard drew the teams even again at 41-41 and 43-43, before the Tech attack began to heat up.
Taylor remained within a single score after a trey from Vincent Miranda made it a 50-48 affair at the 14:20 mark, but the Warriors connected on seven on their next eight shots and rattled off a 15-2 rally to take control at 65-50.
That stretch proved to be the difference in the game, as TU could never get back to within single digits and suffered the 14-point setback.
The Indiana Tech offense was too much for the Trojans over the final 20 minutes, shooting 63.0 percent from the field and racking up 50 points of 17-of-27 shooting. Tech also grabbed 13 more rebounds in the game than Taylor and outscored the Purple and Gold by 10 points in the paint.
Penha posted team-highs of 19 points and seven rebounds to pace the Trojans, while Hubbard ended with 12 points, four assists, two steals and one block. James McCloud also cracked double figures with 10 points, with Miranda adding nine points and Yoon posting a career-high of eight points.
Taylor (2-2, 0-0 CL) is set to open Crossroads League play on Saturday at 1:00 pm when it takes on Grace (4-1, 0-0 CL) in Winona Lake.
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