Coyotes roll 85-57 against Tabor

HILLSBORO – An 18-2 run by the Kansas Wesleyan Coyotes turned a 7-6 lead at Tabor College into a 24-9 KWU advantage and set the stage as the Coyotes claimed an 85-57 victory on Saturday evening inside Tabor College Gym.

This is the fourth consecutive winner for the Coyotes, and improves Wesleyan’s record to 10-1 overall, 5-1 at KCAC; while Tabor fell to 3-6 overall, 1-5 in the KCAC.

Tabor took a 7-6 lead with 15:06 left on a pair of free throws from Cedric Armstrong, but the Coyotes regained the lead with four straight points from leading scorer Cory Kaplan (SO / Merritt Island, Fla) to give KWU led 10-7 with 14:37 to go.

A pair of triples from Jun Murdock (SO / Wichita, Kan.) And another from Izaiah Hale (FR / Wichita, Kan.) Finished the race with 10:16 left in the first half, giving the Coyotes a 24-9 cushion.

Tabor came down to less than nine with 4:49 left in the half before the Coyotes capped seven in a row by the Murdock bucket with 3:26 left, giving KWU a 39-23 lead. AJ Range (SR / Junction City, Kan.) Scored in intermission to give Wesleyan a 43-26 lead until the break.

KWU was leading 54-33 after Kaplan’s bucket with 15 minutes left, but a short run from Tabor made it a 15-point game with 13:45 to go.

Tabor came close at 14, but back-to-back triples from Marcel Dean (SO / Tucson, Ariz) and another Dean long-ranger with 8:32 remaining gave the Coyotes a 23-point lead at 70-47.

The Bluejays went to 70-54 with 7:25 to go, but a 10-0 Coyotes run, capped by Kaplan five in a row, made it 80-54 with 2:43 to go.

Kaplan’s 25 led all scorers and paced four double-digit scorers for KWU while Dean had 11 and Easton Hunter (FR / Colwich, Kan.) And Murdock had 10 each. KWU was 23 of 69 on the field for 46 percent. AJ Range led the rebounds with 11, while Alex Littlejohn (FR / Newton, Kan.) Had seven. KWU passed Tabor 43-37.

KWU has three games to play before the semester break. KWU welcomes Saint Mary at 8 p.m. Wednesday at Mabee Arena, then hits the road next Saturday in Columbia and wraps things up next Monday in Avila.

-kwucoyotes.com-