MANHATTAN, – Kansas Wesleyan men's basketball is off to its best start to a season since 2000-01 as the Coyotes improved to 4-0 and reached the century mark for a second time in a 100-63 rout of the Manhattan Christian Thunder on Saturday at Howie's Activity Center.
The Coyotes raced out to a 7-0 lead to start the game and extended the lead out to 15-4 on Cory Kaplan (SO/Merritt Island, Fla.)'s 3-pointer with 15:17 left in the first half.
KWU led by 10 with 8:42 to go in the first when the offense got untracked, going on a 17-3 run over the next four minutes to give the Coyotes a 46-22 lead with 4:42 left in the half.
A bucket by AJ Range (SR/Junction City, Kan.) gave the Coyotes a 52-26 lead at the half.
Range's bucket with 18:21 left in the game pushed the Coyote lead out to 30 points for the first time. The Thunder got back within 24 at 60-36 with 15 minutes to go, but Micah Lovett (FR/Tulsa, Okla.)'s three point play with 13:27 to go made it 68-38 in favor of the Coyotes.
The lead stretched to 39 points several times, the first at the 5:10 mark on Gabe Mack (JR/Milwaukee, Wis.)'s 3 that made it 91-52 and the last time on Aaron King (SO/Yates Center, Kan.)'s triple that made it 98-59 with 1:13 to go.
CJ Weathers (JR/Allen, Texas) hit a pair of free throws with 34 seconds left to push the Coyotes into triple digits.
Marcel Dean (SO/Tucson, Ariz.) was a perfect 5 of 5 from the field, including hitting three 3-pointers to lead a balanced scoring effort for KWU with 15 points. Lovett added 14, Kaplan 13 and Trey Duffey (SO/Topeka, Kan.) had 10. Range just missed a double-double with nine points and 11 rebounds.
KWU blistered the nets again, shooting 53.1 percent from the field and 50 percent from 3-point range. KWU outrebounded the Thunder 46-32.
Wesleyan opens KCAC play on Wednesday at York and the conference home opener is Saturday against McPherson inside Mabee Arena.