Thursday afternoon the Rhodes College Lynx beat the Whittier College Poets in the Las Vegas D3 Hoops Classic 84-79. 


The beginning of this basketball game felt very unorthodox due to the Poets chaotic run and jump defense. Since they were trapping the Lynx as soon as the ball was over halfcourt the Lynx had to move the ball around fast to beat the trap. As they progressed sophomore, Jack Dempsey scored the Lynx 's first four points with a couple strong layups through contact. The first half was fast paced and full of a lot of missed shots along with a high volume of turnovers from both teams. Both teams shot around 30 % from the field, 20 % from three, and had 10+ turnovers. Rhodes made more shots than Whittier, but what kept the game close was Whittier's 15 made free throws. The Lynx end the half up one with halftime score reading 34-33.

In the second half Rhodes came out swinging, going on a 10-0 run in the first three minutes. Their largest lead of the game came at the 16:15 mark as they went up 14 looking to put away the Poets. However, the Poets did not go away as they chipped the lead to 2 at the 12:52 mark. This did not rattle the Lynx as they went on another run to go up 10, but once again the Poets fought their way back to make this game competitive. No matter what Whittier did Rhodes never felt like they weren't in control. Despite his struggles in the first half Phil Dotson had an amazing second hall performance scoring 20 of the Lynx's 50 second half points. As the buzzer sounded the Lynx beat the Poets 84-79. Rhodes finished the game with 17 assists, 54 rebounds with 21 of them being offensive rebounds and forced 17 turnovers from Whittier. Four Lynx were in double digits for scoring which included Phil Dotson with 24 points, Arness Georgetown with 12 points, Trevor Lombard with 14 points and Zavien Williams with a double-double 12 points and 11 rebounds.

The Lynx look to make their five game winning streak six as they play the University of La Verne on Saturday.