Kansas Wesleyan's Men's Basketball bounced back from Monday's loss to No. 17 Friends with an impressive 77-65 win over the Sterling College Warriors on Wednesday night inside Mabee Arena.
"To see us bounce back this way makes me feel ecstatic," Kansas Wesleyan head coach Jordan Murdock said after the game. "That was the biggest takeaway from the game tonight, our bounce back from the last one."
KWU had the lead the entire night, but Sterling was right there. The Coyotes led 20-16 with 11:15 left in the first half when the Coyotes turned on the jets.
Evens Appolon hit a pair of free throws sparked what turned into a 16-4 run for the Coyotes that made it 36-20 with 6:39 to go before the break.
Sterling chipped away at the Coyote lead, cutting it to five at the break at 44-39.
"You know sometimes we have that happen, we are good and then we end up giving up some points and are down, but tonight I thought we stayed resilient, and we battled through it," Murdock said.
Wesleyan led by nine with 15:37 left on a 3-pointer by Caiden Punt at 53-44, but Sterling made a run, a 10-2 charge that made it a one-point ballgame with 11:17 to go in the game.
The teams traded baskets, but a score by Gabe Phillips would again push the Coyotes on a 12-0 run to take a 69-56 lead with 5:39 left.
The Warriors never got closer than eight the rest of the night.
Brandon Avedon dropped in 20 points to lead all scorers in the game while Appolon had 17, Punt 14 and Jayden Hall had 10. KWU shot 29 of 56 from the field for 51.8 percent for the game. Punt had 11 rebounds and Phillips had 10 as KWU outrebounded Sterling 43-34.
The Coyotes have another big test on Saturday, heading to Leavenworth to take on the Saint Mary Spires.