By Jordan Ferrell (@FerrellonFM983)
SPARTANBURG, S.C. – For the second straight season, the Wofford Terriers are off to a 4-2 start through their first six Southern Conference games despite entering Saturday’s contest with Mercer at .500 on the season. The Terriers owe their success up to this point to several factors.
For starters, Wofford played one of the toughest non-conference schedules among all Division I schools. The Terriers went to battle against seven teams ranked in the top 135 (quad 1) of the NCAA’s NET rankings, including current No. 2 Duke (#3 in AP poll), as well as No. 83 Lipscomb, and No. 98 Saint Thomas, enough to garner them the second-toughest non-league slate among the SoCon and 54th-hardest in the country according to KenPom.
Wofford has also been shooting the lights out through the first several weeks of conference play. As a team, the Terriers have shot 48.3 percent from the field (which ranks second in the SoCon) and 40 percent from three-point range.
But, probably the most striking thing is the emergence of the one-two punch that is senior guard Dillon Bailey and his fellow guard, junior transfer from just up I-585 (USC Upstate) Justin Bailey. I’ll answer the question likely running through your mind now as you read this in the words of Forrest Gump and Bubba: “No, sir, we are not relations.”
Over the three contests prior to Saturday evening’s tilt with Mercer, the duo combined for an average of 34 points per game. Dillon was shooting 54.4 percent from the floor coming in (22-for-39) and an even more impressive 59 percent from beyond the arch (13-for-22). He led the team in scoring with a season-high 21 points in the Terriers’ tough 83-81 overtime loss to Chattanooga this past Wednesday night.
Over that same span, Justin was averaging 15 points per game and shooting an eye-popping 70 percent from three-point range (12-for-17), which KenPom ranks as the seventh-best among all shooters in Division I. He also had a career-best 22 points Wednesday night.
“It’s huge for us to be playing as well as we are right now,” said Wofford head coach Dwight Perry. “We are a third of the way through our conference slate. But, what you want to see is the team continuing to get better. We have areas we need to improve on, just like any team. But, we are on the right trajectory and our guys are hungry. They are willing to be coached and are coming in with the right mentality. We are focused on the process and not just the result. But we can’t get complacent because this is a tough league and every single night you face an opponent that can beat you if you aren’t playing at the level you need to be.”
Needless to say, the Terriers came into Saturday night looking to continue the trend and pick up their sixth consecutive victory in the series with the Mercer Bears, who came into the night also at .500 overall (9-9, 2-3 SoCon) after three consecutive losses in which the margin of victory was a combined six points. Fortunately for the Terrier faithful, this game would be nowhere near as close.
Mercer took the reins early on, taking the tip and going down the court to open the scoring with a three from Cam Bryant. They would later add on with a split pair of free throws from Laurynas Vaistaras. It took Wofford until the 18:41 mark to finally break the lid off the hoop with a couple of Corey Tripp free throws, sparking a 6-0 spurt that gave the Terriers the lead for good.
Justin Bailey established himself as the man to beat in this game fairly early on. In that Wofford push to take the lead, he scored six straight points, first on an old-fashioned three-point play followed by a triple from the right wing on the next possession. He would go on to lead the Terriers to the 69-49 victory with a team-high 18 points. Dillon also showed consistency with his performance from the last three games by contributing 13 points.
“Justin has an infectious personality,” Perry said. “As a human being, he is an incredible person. He is passionate and his energy is infectious. Every time he comes into this building, he lights up the room and I could not be more proud of him. He has done a really good job of providing leadership. You see the stats. You see the points, the rebounds, the defense. You see his efficiency. But his energy is what really sparked us today. I thought Dillon really stepped up. He had some timely baskets and his overall leadership was huge. We don’t win that game without those two guys’ leadership.”
The Terriers also got some key production from Tripp (12 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists), Kyler Filewich (8 pts, 9 boards, 2 assists), Khamare Holmes (7 pts, 2 blocks), Jackson Sivills (6 points, 3 reb, 3 ast), and Jeremy Lorenz (5 pts, 4 reb, assist, 2 steals, 2 blocks).
While the Baileys and Wofford’s offense overcame some cold spells and managed to finish the game 23-for-54 from the field, it was the defense that one could highlight as one of the main keys in the victory. To say that they crashed the board: would be a serious understatement. The Terriers were ranked 21st in the country in rebounding margin with a plus-8, and 44th in the nation in total rebounds with an average of just shy of 40 per game. They had been limiting their opposition to just 27.6 percent when it came to pulling down offensive boards. This game, defensive rebounds were a huge key, as Wofford came up with 34 (for perspective, they had 41 total), while also forcing nine turnovers.
“I thought our team played inspired and hard,” said Perry. “It was our third game in six days. That’s no easy feat, especially in this league when two of the three are on the road. We had a tough loss on Wednesday, and I think a lot of teams would understandably be down and just go through the motions to try and get through today’s game after that. But, I thought our team did a great job of not only getting through it, but embracing it. We really took the fight to Mercer. We really battled and showed a high level of toughness that I could not be more proud of as a coach.”
Now that the Terriers have picked up their eighth win in the last 11 meetings with the Bears to up their record to 10-9 (4-2 SoCon), they will shift their focus towards a second straight home SoCon battle this coming Wednesday night.
“We are going to have to do what we have done the first six games,” Perry said. “We have to come ready to win a fight against a really good, well-coached team. You cannot look at records in this league and you can’t rely on having home court advantage to be any indicator of how the game is going to go. The Citadel is going to be desperate for a win. But, no matter who we are playing, we have to be even more desperate and hungrier than they are. We have to stick to the process. When we are playing Wofford basketball, that is good enough.”
The Terriers will welcome The Citadel to Spartanburg on Wednesday. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.
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