Record-breaking night of filming sends Coyote men to defeat McPherson

McPHERSON — It was a record night for the Kansas Wesleyans men’s basketball team shooting the ball. The Coyotes set a new team single-game shooting percentage record en route to a 93-67 win over the McPherson Bulldogs on Saturday night at Sport Center.

Wesleyan shot 40 of 63 from the field for the game for 63.5%, eclipsing the previous record of 62.9% set against Saint Mary of the Plains on January 8, 1986.

Saturday’s contest was all Coyotes, all night.

KWU scored the first five points of the game on a 3 from Easton Hunter (FR/Colwich, Kan.) and a bucket from AJ Range (SR/Junction City, Kan.), but the Coyotes quickly opened the lead at 11-2 over Trey Duffey’s bucket (SO/Topeka, Kan.) with 16:50 to go in the first half.

A later bucket by Range with 12:49 left in the first gave the Coyotes a 12-17-5 lead. McPherson halved Wesleyan’s lead to six at 20-14 with 10 minutes left in the half, but a bucket from Tyus Jeffries (SR/Oklahoma City, Okla.) with 7:30 to go was a again gave the Coyotes a 10 lead.

McPherson came back to within nine at 31-22 when the Coyotes offense exploded on a 12-2 run to take a 43-24 lead with 39 seconds left in the half on a 3 from Jun Murdock (SO /Wichita, Kan.). The Murdock runner just before halftime would close out a 14-4 run to end the half and give KWU a 45-26 lead at the break.

Range’s bucket with 17:25 left in the half put the Coyotes up 24, but a run from McPherson brought the Bulldogs within 16 points at 54-38. Wesleyan responded quickly, taking a 61-40 lead over Alex Littlejohn’s (FR/Newton, Kan.) triple with 13:51 to go.

McPherson again reduced the score to 17 points with 12:41 to go, but the Coyotes kept pace with the lead. The Bulldogs have come close to 18 points on several occasions, the last with 6:28 to go before the Coyotes used a 9-0 run to take a 27-point margin at 83-56 with 4:23 left. after Littlejohn’s bucket.

From there, the Coyotes would cruise to Jake Poffhoff’s final points victory with 26 seconds left.

Murdock led the Coyotes with 18 points, while Range added 17, Tyus Jeffries had 15 and Littlejohn added 10 for the Coyotes. KWU topped the boards along with nine from Range and seven from CJ Weathers (JR/Allen, TX).

The Coyotes will have some time to rest before hosting the fifth Wesleyan from Oklahoma on Wednesday inside Mabee Arena.

-kwucoyotes.com-