Basketball Impresses in Battle With Barons

By Mike DeVader, Reinhardt Director of Athletic Communications & Media

WALESKA, Ga. – The high-flying Eagles put on a show in their home opener on Saturday afternoon and exploded to a 91-72 victory over Brewton-Parker (Ga.) inside the Brown Athletic Center to improve to 2-0 on the young season.

Tyler Smith had a dominant performance with 21 points and four rebounds on 10-of-13 to help lead an attack that saw Reinhardt players hit double-digit scoring on five occasions in the non-conference win.

"Really proud of the guys as we had 20-plus assists and really shared the ball and played together," head coach Justin Newton said. "I thought we made some improvement on the defensive end and gang rebounded. We have a lot of different guys that can step up for us, and hopefully more guys can do something positive with their opportunity. We've got to refocus and make a quick turnaround towards Toccoa Falls and protect home court."

A strong start on both ends of the court helped propel the hometown team to a 16-point lead in the first half – 27-11 with just under 10 minutes remaining – following an 18-4 stretch in the previous five minutes.

The Barons would respond with a good chunk of play of their own, returning the favor on their hosts and cutting the deficit to only six tallies at 30-24. Over the final 5:22 of the first half, the trend of scoring momentum continued, this time swinging back to Eagles, as they finished the period strong and got back to a 16-point lead at the break (48-32).

Reinhardt continued playing suffocating defense and putting up highlight reel-type plays in the second as well, ballooning its advantage to as big as 24 points. The team would consistently hover around the 20-point mark for the remainder of the outing as Newton was able to get a lot of players into the action.

Joining Smith in double figures were starters Jalin Wimberly (17) and DJ Lampkin (11), followed by key contributors off the bench – Moses Jones and Tafari Thomas – who netted 12 and 11 points, respectively.

Lampkin was out-front in boards with eight, while Marcus Kirkland grabbed seven boards to go along with five point and a trio of assists.

Wimberly added a team-high eight assists as his club saw five student-athletes hit the three-plus dime plateau.

Collectively, Reinhardt shot 48 percent from the floor (36-for-75 and 22 assists) and 40.6 percent from 3-point land.

On defense, the Eagles forced Brewton-Parker into 19 miscues, thanks in large part to 12 thefts.

The hometown squad looks for three in-a-row on Monday night against National Christian College Athletic Association member Toccoa Falls (Ga.) at 7:30 p.m. 

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