GENESEO — Blue Devils senior guard Bryan Rollins scored 34 points en route to a 72-60 win over the Pavilion Golden Gophers Friday night.
Although the Blue Devils got off to a 8-2 start in the first quarter, the Gophers overcame a slow start and kept it close throughout.
“We started in the 1-3-1 zone to try to get a little pressure on them,” Geneseo head coach Brian Stout said. “Once they started hitting a couple shots we went to man-to-man and defended a little better.”
Both teams were committing an abundance of turnovers and missing open shots in the first half, which led to the relatively low halftime score of 28-25, in favor of Geneseo.
“[Rollins] had four turnovers in the first half because of the way he took the passing lanes and didn’t attack,” Stout said. “In the second half when they trapped and took away the passing lanes he attacked the basket and got inside. Plus [senior guard Mo Carlon] did a really good job of penetrating and kicking out to him on those threes.”
Carlon, who finished with 16 points, made his presence felt on the defensive side of the ball as well. Along with Rollins, the backcourt duo forced enough turnovers that lead to easy baskets in the third quarter to eventually pull away to a 51-43 lead going into the fourth.
The Golden Gophers opened the final quarter by hitting a three pointer and getting some layups, but Carlon and Rollins proved to be too much for the Pavilion defense, as they combined for 16 points in the fourth.
Geneseo (9-3) will next play at York on January 31st.