McPHERSON – It was a record night for the Kansas Wesleyan men's basketball team shooting the ball. The Coyotes set a new team single game shooting percentage record on the way to a 93-67 win over the McPherson Bulldogs on Saturday night at the Sport Center.
Wesleyan shot 40-of-63 from the field for the game for 63.5 percent, eclipsing the previous record of 62.9 percent 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 by Easton Hunter (FR/Colwich, Kan.) and a bucket by AJ Range (SR/Junction City, Kan.), but the Coyotes quickly opened up the lead to 11-2 on Trey Duffey (SO/Topeka, Kan.)'s bucket with 16:50 to go in the first half.
A later bucket by Range with 12:49 left in the first put the Coyotes up 12 at 17-5. McPherson halved Wesleyan's lead to six at 20-14 with 10 minutes left in the half, but a bucket by Tyus Jeffries (SR/Oklahoma City, Okla.) with 7:30 left put the Coyotes up by 10 again.
McPherson got back within nine at 31-22 when the Coyote offense exploded on a 12-2 run to take a 43-24 lead with 39 seconds left in the half on a 3 by Jun Murdock (SO/Wichita, Kan.). Murdock's runner just before the half 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 by McPherson got the Bulldogs back within 16 points at 54-38. Wesleyan responded promptly, taking a 61-40 lead on Alex Littlejohn (FR/Newton, Kan.)'s triple with 13:51 left in the game.
McPherson again cut it to 17 points with 12:41 left, but the Coyotes would keep pace holding the lead. The Bulldogs got within 18 several times, the last with 6:28 to go before the Coyotes used a 9-0 run to take a game high 27-point margin at 83-56 with 4:23 left after Littlejohn's bucket.
From there the Coyotes would cruise to the win the final points coming by Jake Poffhoff 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 dominated the boards as well paced by nine from Range and seven from CJ Weathers (JR/Allen, Texas).
The Coyotes will get a little time to rest before hosting fifth-ranked Oklahoma Wesleyan on Wednesday inside Mabee Arena.