Junior guard Zack Blue scored a career-high 23 points and senior Da'Shawn Cook added 21 points to lead the University of Mary Washington men's basketball team to an impressive 83-66 victory over Widener University on Saturday afternoon at Ron Rosner Arena. The Eagles improve to 15-5 on the season.
The first basket for the Eagles came from Greg Rowson at 18:10, followed by two made free-throws by his brother Andrew Rowson to tie up the game at 4 at 17:11. Da'Shawn Cook went on to score 2 3-pointers and a basket through the next 2 minutes of the game, alongside Greg Rowson and his 1st slam dunk of the contest at 16:30 to make the score 12-8 Eagles at 15:15. Zach Blue would go onto hit his first 2 threes of the game at 11:55 and 11:30 to give UMW a 21-11 advantage. Down the stretch, Mary Washington cruised toward the end of the 1st half and outscored the Widener Pride 17-12 to end the half and give UMW a 40-23 advantage.
To start the 2nd half, Da'Shawn Cook fired from beyond the arc 17 seconds in, which was followed by back-to-back Zack Blue 3-pointers to give Mary Wash a commanding 49-28 lead at 17:02.Continued hard play on both sides of the ball by the Eagles would lead to yet another Greg Rowson slam dunk at 7:20, leading to Da'Shawn Cooks' 4th 3-pointer of the game with 5:42 left to go in the game. Two back-to-back free-throws by Emmanuel Aghayere at 4:47 would bring the score to 72-57 UMW, and the Widener University Pride were not able to battle back. The Eagles' last basket would come from Cook who found a break in the defense and got into the paint for a reverse layup to cement the win for Mary Washington.
Aside from Blue and Cook, Greg Rowson put up 15 points and 9 rebounds, while Cameron McCravy, Devin Johnson, and Emmanuel Aghayere all added 5 points. Cook added 6 rebounds and 8 assists while Blue went 7-9 from 3-point range and added 2 blocks and steals each to round out an all-around fantastic performance for UMW.
UMW shot 56% from the field (28-50), making 13-27 three-point tries and 14-24 free throws, while Widener shot 44.2% (23-52), making 7-27 3 three-pointers and 13-23 free throws. The Eagles led in rebounds, 32-27, while forcing 15 turnovers.
The Eagles will return to action on Wednesday when they host Christopher Newport University at 7:00 p.m.