By Mike DeVader, Reinhardt Director of Athletic Communications & Media
WALESKA, Ga. – A new era of men's basketball began on Wednesday evening as head coach Justin Newton and his squad took center stage at home against Dalton State (Ga.) inside the Brown Athletic Center.
The Roadrunners, however, stole the spotlight from the Eagles (0-1) by building a big halftime lead en route to a 79-55 win on the road.
"Was definitely not the way we wanted to start the year," Newton said. "I was very pleased at how we started the game and the energy we had. Dalton State is a very tough opponent and I have to do a better job getting our team ready. They are a talented, hard-working, good group of guys that will bounce back. Shooting 27 percent from the field you won't beat anyone. We allowed 79 points, which is far from our game goal of 65. We didn't make shots tonight that we normally make, and we took way too many threes, which is not who we want to be.
I was very thankful to the great crowd and RU faithful that supported the team the whole time. The real season starts next Wednesday – and we'll be ready."
The game started with a bang, as Dwayne Wilson nailed back-to-back treys to give the hometown team an early 6-0 advantage. Dalton State would call timeout and collect itself before responding with an 8-0 run to jump ahead by two.
The Roadrunners would then get hot from the field and begin to put together basket after basket to head into the locker room ahead by 22 points, 42-20.
Reinhardt seemed to settle into the evening over the final 20 minutes as it played a nearly even half of basketball, but couldn't make up any ground on the overall deficit.
The Eagles were only able to shoot 26.9 percent from the floor for the game (14-of-52), including going 6-for-20 from beyond the arc.
They were also 21-of-34 from the charity stripe.
Individually, both Wilson (13 points) and Chris Rogers (11) hit double-digits.
Marcus Kirkland scored nine while bringing in a team-best half-dozen rebounds. Blake MacIntyre netted 8 points, 4 assists and 3 steals.
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