Western overwhelms sluggish Lumen team 52-34 for ‘huge’ win on the road
By Mike Moore
Staff Writer
Jackson – This was dominance, in every sense of the word.
From the opening tip, to the final buzzer. From outside the arc, to inside the paint.
It was a luau in the stands and a celebration at the bench.
And for the first time since, “I don’t even know when,” as coach Ryan Mulnix would say afterwards, this was Western’s night to shine against the Titans.
“It’s huge,” Mulnix said after his guys rolled past Lumen Christi 52-34 Friday night at Lumen. The Panthers hadn’t beaten Lumen since December of 2007. “It’s a rival. It’s at their place. We’ve had a few tough losses these past few games, but tonight, the effort was there. We were locked in defensively, we hit some early shots, and it was away we go from there.”
The Panthers came out firing, and hitting, on all cylinders, and you would have never known one of their top players, Hunter Page, was on the bench in street clothes with a leg injury.
Brennan Joseph connected on some early 3-pointers from the outside, while Steele Fortress was simply unstoppable inside.
By the end of the first quarter Western led 17-5. By the half, the lead had swelled to 27-13 — and it wasn’t even that close.
“The shooting. The shots we’ve made the past few games we didn’t make tonight,” Lumen coach Pat Neville offered as a reason for the slow start. “We counted six missed layups in the first half. That makes a he difference right there.”
Shot selection was also an issue, according to Neville.
His guys never got into any sort of groove offensively, seemed out of sorts on both ends of the floor, and before long, began firing at will.
“One of the keys tonight was composure. It was a local game and we needed to take shots we could make,” Neville added. “We took shots early that were not good shots. We counted 10 in the first half that we considered bad shots.”
Lumen cut into the deficit a bit in the third quarter, but for every step forward the Titans took, Western seemed to have a defensive answer or key offensive make.
The Panthers led 44-23 entering the fourth, and the Hawaiian-dressed student section had reason to party.
“It was important to get up on them early,” Mulnix said. “A lot of these guys are back from last year when we played from behind so much. We talked about finishing tonight, and we did.”
Technically, it was a collection of substitutes for both teams that finished.
Zaylen Moore came off the bench to lead Lumen in scoring with 16 points. Kristopher Wallace added five points in the loss.
“We’re going to show up in the gym and get back to work,” Neville said about his guys, which fell to 1-6 with the loss. “This is high school sports. You find out if you have great leaders when you’re struggling. Everybody can be great and everybody can be a great leader when you’re winning, but we’ll find out about this group when we see how hard they are going to work. Nobody is going to make it easy on us.”
Joseph poured in 19 points to lead all Western (4-4), while Fortress finished with 14 and Jacob Lefevre had nine.
“We’re going to get back to work Monday and get ready for Harper Creek,” Mulnix said when asked about not putting too much stock into one win. “But you have to enjoy this, at least for one night, we’re going to really enjoy it.”
Mike Moore is a play-by-play commentator and Sports Writer for JTV Sports. You can reach him at mjm12@albion.edu. He’s also the author of ‘Love, Defined; A Dedication to the Love, Sacrifice, and Magic of Motherhood.’
Love, Defined is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Tate Publishing or by contacting Mike directly.