NORTH NEWTON - It was the tale of two wildly different halves for the Kansas Wesleyan men's basketball team.
Trailing Hesston 49-42 at halftime after a lackluster first 20 minutes the Coyotes took control at the start of the second half and quickly pulled away for a 93-73 victory Friday afternoon in the Bethel College Classic.
It was the first career victory of the year for KWU (1-3) and the first career win for head coach Jordan Murdock who was hired in March.
The Coyotes outscored the Larks 37-4 to start the second half, holding them without a field goal for the first 13:40. By then they had crafted a comfortable 79-57 lead.
Hesston controlled the first half with its perimeter shooting making eight 3-pointers that included five in a row during an early stretch. The Larks made three more 3s in the second half, but they came well after the outcome was decided.
"We can talk any strategy and all that different stuff but until we guard the basketball defensively nothing's going to work. I think that's what happened in the second half," Murdock said on the postgame radio show. "We were able to string together some stops and after that we kind of got control of the game. That's how it starts in basketball, you've got to guard to win."
Gabe Phillips led the charge with a career-high of 26 points. He scored 16 in the second half that included 12 of KWU's first 26 points. Freshman Brandon Avedon finished with 16, Caiden Punt had 12 and Matthew Garber 11.
Murdock said his team might have finally gotten the message.
"They got tired of me and the coaches screaming at them about being able to guard," he said. "So far in our first three games teams are shooting above 50 percent against us for the whole game and it's hard to win basketball games like that. That's been our conversation today."
Murdock benched most of the starters for a lengthy period in the first half after the rough beginning.
"I feel like we came out asleep," he said. "We've talked about it; we've been in three games and if guys aren't getting the job done, I've got to give other guys the opportunity."
Murdock was especially pleased with Phillips' effort.
"We need Gabe to be that type of guy for us on a nightly basis," he said. "Getting the ball to him around the rim and being able to score. He's so much stronger than a lot of guys. He's undersized in length but when other teams are playing small, he's got to be able to take advantage like that. I'm super ecstatic for him."