Albion improved to 16-2 and 7-1 in the MIAA. Adrian fell to 7-12, 1-7. Albion and Calvin are currently tied for the league lead, and Hope can join them with a win later tonight against Kalamazoo College.
Albion jumped out to a 12-6 lead in the first five minutes. Senior center Brandon Crawford scored seven points during the stretch, hitting three of his first four field goal attempts. Adrian stayed in the game thanks to two 3-pointers from Andy Kubish.
Layups by junior center Evan Way and junior guard Zak Silas—Silas’ off a pretty backdoor pass from Crawford—put the Britons up 16-8 with 11:08 left in the half.
A 3-pointer by Jim Cash from the corner with nine minutes remaining gave Albion its first double-digit lead at 19-8. Then, just 53 seconds later, Cash hit a long 3 from up top, putting Albion up 14 points.
Albion held Adrian scoreless from the 12:46 mark of the half until with 6:37 left Kubish banked in a 3-pointer with the shot clock winding down to cut Adrian’s deficit to 22-11. That was one of just four field goals for the Bulldogs in the final 12 minutes of the period.
Albion went on a 23-2 run covering just over five minutes to take a 46-13 lead with roughly 1:30 left in the half. First Crawford hit two free throws and Garrett Gibbons and Mike Bailey made layups to extend Albion’s lead to 28-11 with 5:22 to play.
After an Adrian basket, Bailey and Gibbons hit back-to-back treys to give the Britons a commanding 34-13 advantage. Way extended the lead to 36-13 with two free throws then Crawford scored 10 consecutive points before Adrian finally momentarily slowed down Albion’s momentum with a basket at the 1:04 mark.
Albion took a 48-17 lead into the locker room.
Crawford shot 7-for-8 from the field and 5-for-6 from the free throw line to score 19 points in the half. Albion shot a blistering 73.9 percent the first 20 minutes, by far its best shooting half of the year. The Britons were 17-for-23 from the field, 5-for-6 from 3-point range and 9-for-10 from the free throw line in the half.
Albion outscored Adrian 22-2 in points in the paint, scored 11 points off nine Bulldogs’ turnovers and outrebounded the Bulldogs 17-9 in the period.
Adrian shot just 6-for-29 (20.7 percent) from the field in the first half, including 3-for-15 from 3-point range.
Crawford led Albion with 26 points in the contest. He moved into 14th place on Albion’s all-time scoring list with 1,094 career points and he is now just one point shy of the ninth-highest point total in a season with 424 points. With nine rebounds, Crawford is also just three boards short of the 10th-best total for a season. He currently has 203 boards.
Gibbons recorded his first double-digit scoring game in four contests as he tallied 13. Cash was Albion’s third-highest scorer with nine points.
The Britons got most of their bench into the game in the second period and 11 players scored. First-year player Dean Raven scored a career-high six points as did junior Drew Hilton by hitting two 3-pointers. Raven entered the game with one point in his career and Hilton had four.
Gibbons hit his second 3 of the game the first minute of the second half to give Albion a 51-17 advantage. Gibbons hit another trey at the 13:41 mark to extend Albion’s lead to 61-26, its biggest advantage of the game at that point. Adrian got no closer than 28.
Junior Andrew Ruddick put an exclamation point on the victory with a dunk to give Albion a 74-41 lead with just under four minutes to play. Three-pointers by sophomore guard D.J. Mocini and Raven and two free throws by Raven extended Albion’s biggest advantage to 82-41.
Adrian was led by Kubish’s 15 points.
Albion will continue MIAA play Wednesday, Feb. 1, when it travels to Angola, Ind., to take on Tri-State University. Tip-off is scheduled for 8 p.m.
ADRIAN COLLEGE (7-12; 1-7 MIAA) Andy Kubish 6-12 0-1 15; Mike Reinhard 3-8 0-0 7; Jeff Nokovich 2-8 2-3 6; Billy Collins Jr 1-8 2-2 5; Steve Thornton 1-4 2-4 4; Ian Weber 1-5 1-2 3; Nick Clark 1-4 0-1 2; Mark Bohlen 1-2 0-0 2; Brandon Giles 1-2 0-0 2; David Cultra 0-3 0-0 0; Corey Smith 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 17-58 7-13 46. ALBION COLLEGE (16-2; 7-1 MIAA) Brandon Crawford 10-11 6-8 26; Garrett Gibbons 5-8 0-0 13; Jim Cash 3-4 0-0 9; Evan Way 2-3 2-2 6; Drew Hilton 2-4 0-0 6; Dean Raven 1-1 3-4 6; D.J. Mocini 1-2 2-2 5; Mike Bailey 2-6 0-0 5; Zak Silas 2-3 0-0 5; Drew Yancey 1-4 0-0 2; Andrew Ruddick 1-1 0-0 2; Rick Palmer 0-1 0-0 0; Neil Washington 0-0 0-0 0; Tom Jurasek 0-1 0-0 0; David Bunn 0-0 0-0 0; Corey Thelen 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 30-49 13-16 85. Adrian College................ 17 29 - 46 Albion College................ 48 37 - 85 3-point goals-Adrian College 5-25 (Andy Kubish 3-9; Mike Reinhard 1-3; Billy Collins Jr 1-4; Nick Clark 0-1; Brandon Giles 0-1; David Cultra 0-2; Corey Smith 0-1; Jeff Nokovich 0-4), Albion College 12-19 (Garrett Gibbons 3-5; Jim Cash 3-3; Drew Hilton 2-3; Dean Raven 1-1; D.J. Mocini 1-2; Mike Bailey 1-3; Zak Silas 1-2). Fouled out--Adrian College-Jeff Nokovich, Albion College-None. Rebounds-Adrian College 22 (Steve Thornton 3; Andy Kubish 3), Albion College 38 (Brandon Crawford 9). Assists-Adrian College 7 (Jeff Nokovich 4), Albion College 26 (Rick Palmer 9). Total fouls-Adrian College 18, Albion College 17. A-626