"Welcome to 2020" is a refrain everyone has been saying in this year of craziness. So, when you have to take 39 days off between games due to COVID-19 cancellations and your first game back after a week of practice is against the No. 1 team in the land, you say "Welcome to 2020." The Park Gilbert Buccaneers (0-4) fell to the top-ranked Indian Wesleyan Wildcats (14-0) 90-60, in what was a much closer contest than the score indicated this evening at The PHHacility in Phoenix, Ariz.
"I think with Indiana Wesleyan was more physical than us tonight," said Buccaneers head coach Gordon Stubblefield. "We struggled to make shots down the stretch in the first half and came out in the second half with a little fire but our inability to consistently hit shots was ultimately our downfall."
The Bucs got off to a strong start holding the lead on the Wildcats for the first 10 minutes of the contest. But as the shots stopped falling, a veteran team such as IWU knows how to take advantage and that is exactly what the Wildcats did. Indiana Wesleyan went on a run to take a 10-point lead 38-28 at the half.
The second half saw more of the same as Indian Wesleyan started to assert itself and showed why it earned the No. 1 ranking in the country. Fifty-two second half points went on the board for the Wildcats in comparison to the 32 the Bucs tallied as they pulled away to earn the 30-point victory.
The game was won on the defensive glass and in shooting percentage. The Wildcats outrebounded the Bucs 37-23 and outshot them 52 percent to 34 percent. Indiana Wesleyan shot 62 percent from the floor in the second half. Both teams had 18 turnovers, 10 assists and nine offensive rebounds to show how well Park Gilbert managed to stay with the Wildcats.
Martin Simon came off the bench to score 12 points and corral six boards. Starting shooting guard John Norsworthy III posted a team high 14 points and four boards.
The Buccaneers will now return to action on Monday, December 21 as they will travel back to Glendale, Ariz., to take on the now fifth-ranked Firestorm of Arizona Christian. Park Gilbert has already dropped two games to ACU but will look to pull the upset as they have managed to stay competitive with ACU in their other two matchups.
