Men’s Basketball shoots, slams way to huge bounce-back win over Bluefield State

Salisbury, N.C. —- The Catawba College men's basketball team bounced back in a big way on Wednesday night, scoring the most points in a game since the 2018-19 season opener in a 114-70 victory over Bluefield State in Goodman Arena in the team's non-conference finale.

TEAM STATS

- Catawba shot 42-for-77 (55 percent), while holding Bluefield State to 25-for-68 (37 percent) from the floor

- The Catawba Indians connected on a season-high 12 three-pointers on 25 (48 percent) attempts; the Big Blue were 7-of-23 (30 percent) from deep

- Catawba was 18-for-23 (78 percent) from the free throw line. BSU shot 13-of-16 (81 percent) from the charity stripe

- The Catawba Indians out-rebounded Bluefield State 49-33, leading to an 18-8 advantage on second-chance points

- Catawba recorded 23 assists to 18 turnovers, while forcing the Big Blue to 27 turnovers compared to 13 assists; the Catawba Indians held a massive 38-12 advantage in points off turnovers

- Catawba out-scored BSU 58-30 in points in the paint, 32-12 in fastbreak points and 57-38 in bench points

- The team recorded 12 dunks in the game

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

- Kris Robinson matched a season-high six three pointers in his first game off the bench this year, scoring a game-high 23 points on 7-for-10 shooting with four rebounds and three assists

- Shad Thomas went for a career-high 16 points on 8-for-10 from the field with five boards

- DeAngelo Epps chipped in 14 points and five rebounds

- Peyton Gerald and Justin Banks scored 12 points apiece on a combined 9-for-12 from the field and seven rebounds

- Javeon Jones was one of six Catawba Indians in double figures with 10 points, five assists and six steals

- O'Mazeon Tinsley dished out a game- and season-high six assists

HOW IT HAPPENED

FIRST HALF

- Jones' three pointer capped a 7-0 Catawba run to start the game

- Thomas' layup pushed the lead to 13-4 less than four minutes into the game

- A quick 5-0 spurt from the Big Blue cut their deficit to four points

- The Catawba Indians responded with 10 unanswered points, capped by Robinson's three-pointer to make it 23-9 at the 13-minute mark

- After the lead staid between 10 and 16 points for the majority of the half, Catawba went on another 13-0 run to lead 51-26 after Gerald's dunk with under four minutes to go

- Banks' layup put the Catawba Indians to the 60-point mark in just the first half, leading 60-32 at the break

SECOND HALF

- Catawba scored the first four points of the second half, doubling up the visitors 64-32 less than a minute into the half

- The Catawba Indians reached the century mark and their largest lead of the game on the same three-pointer, Robinson's fifth of the game, to lead 102-53 just under the five-minute mark

- Catawba cruised from there, taking home the 44-point win for the tied for eighth-highest margin of victory in program history

UP NEXT

- Catawba returns to South Atlantic Conference play on Saturday, heading west for a road matchup with the Tusculum Pioneers at 4 p.m.