W&J Defense Shuts Down Grove City 63-50
GROVE CITY, Pa. -- Washington & Jefferson limited Grove City to 31.5 percent shooting (17-of-54), including only seven first-half field goals, during the Presidents' 63-50 PAC men's basketball victory over the host Wolverines Wednesday night at College Arena.
The Presidents (6-9, 4-2 PAC) have now won three consecutive games after outmuscling the Wolverines on the boards by a 44-32 margin.
W&J never trailed after hopping out to a 9-3 lead. Sophomore point guard Doug Johnson's (Greensburg, Pa./Latrobe) back-to-back three-pointers pushed the advantage to 30-17 at the 5:14 mark and junior guard Brett Rubin-Goldstein's (Pittsburgh, Pa./Fox Chapel) basket four minutes later gave the Presidents a 35-21 halftime edge. W&J scored 16 of its 35 points in the opening 20 minutes after GCC turnovers.
The Wolverines started strong in the second half and narrowed the gap to 40-35 six minutes in, but W&J halted that spurt with six-straight points. A 9-0 run over a four-minute span later in the half put the game out of reach as sophomore forward Nate Bellhy (McDonald, Pa./Fort Cherry) had the key basket, a triple at the 6:10 mark, which stopped a W&J scoring drought of nearly three minutes.
Nate Bellhy led the Presidents with 14 points and six rebounds. Both he and Johnson made 3-of-5 three-point shots. Johnson notched 13 points and two assists, while senior guard Zach Bellhy (McDonald, Pa./Fort Cherry) finished with 13 points and six boards. W&J shot 39 percent (21-of-54) overall.
Mitch Marmelstein led all scorers with 20 points. He had eight of the Wolverines' 17 field goals. Grove City also hurt itself at the free throw line, making only 11-of-19 attempts.
The Presidents continue conference play Saturday in West Virginia at Bethany (4:00 pm). The game will be broadcasted on the PAC Sports Network (pacstream.net).
