Senior guard Da'Shawn Cook found himself with a double-double on Wednesday night to lead the 24th ranked University of Mary Washington men's basketball team to a win against Methodist University Monarchs in Fredericksburg, Va. Cook scored 23 points and added 11 rebounds with two assists, while fellow senior Emmanuel Aghayere had 11 points and 4 rebounds. The Eagles improve to 5-1 on the season.
Sophomore Andrew Rowson had himself a solid first game of the season starting both halves and putting up 9 points, 4 tallies each in both assists and rebounds, and one block.
The Eagles pulled away quickly within the first few minutes of the game, with a 10-3 advantage over the Monarchs, but good defense and many fouls on both sides of the ball throughout the first half allowed Methodist to push back and pull ahead to a two point advantage over UMW at the half with a score of 27-25. All but two of Emmanuel Aghayere's points came in the first half, showing he could be a bright spot on both offense and defense when the team needed him. A beautiful block by Andrew Rowson at 6:00 left in the first gave both his team and the home crowd the energy that propelled the Eagles offense to get the deficit to 2 at the half with a score of 27-25.
The second half was a different story for both the Eagles and the Monarchs, as the Eagles pushed ahead with three-point buckets from Cook, freshman Dorian Davis, senior Cameron McCravy, and Andrew Rowson. Not only were the three-pointers plentiful, but their 11 trips to the line for UMW and countless fouls for the Monarchs helped almost double Methodists' 2nd half total as the end score for the game was 64-47.
Cook shot 6-14 from the floor, making 3-8 three point tries, and 8-9 free throws. Aghayere was great in the paint shooting 4-4 from the floor and 3-4 from the line.
Mary Washington shot 39.5% from the floor (17-43), making 7-20 three pointers and 23-33 free throws. Methodist University shot 34.0% (16-47), making 5-20 three point attempts and 10-14 free throws. UMW held a 35-29 advantage in rebounds with the turnover margin split evenly at 14 apiece.
The Eagles will return to action on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. at Marymount University.