GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Lourdes men's basketball team (18-6, 12-6 in WHAC) defeated Aquinas (9-14, 7-11 in WHAC) 86 to 80 on Saturday afternoon.

The Gray Wolves ended their two game skid and are now two wins away from their sixth straight 20-win season (excluding the 2020-2021 COVID year).

Lourdes has beaten Aquinas nine straight times, going back to 2022. The winning streak is the longest in series history between the WHAC rivals.

The Terracotta and Gray are still tied for third place with Rochester Christian and remain just one game back from Indiana Tech for the two seed in the WHAC tournament. Lourdes and Indiana Tech face off next Wednesday at 7:30 in the Ebeid Rec Center.

Aquinas drops to 8^th place in the WHAC standings with the loss. The Saints are a game up on Defiance for the final spot in the WHAC tournament and are tied with Northwestern Ohio. Aquinas has the tiebreaker with UNOH due to sweeping them this season.

1^st Half
Lourdes had their best start to a game all season, going on a 17-2 run through the first six minutes. Sophomore guard Derek Fairley contributed 10 points during the run and 14 total in the half.

Fairley ended up leading the team with 24 points in the game, his sixth straight game with 20 or more points and 19^th game of 20 or more points on the season. Fairley is still 5^th in the NAIA in scoring and leading the WHAC in points per game with 24.6. On Feb. 15, the Bevo Francis Award will announce their top 50 semifinalists with Fairley remaining a potential candidate.

After the 17-2 opening run, Lourdes and Aquinas traded six baskets a piece to make the score a 28 to 14 Lourdes advantage. A subsequent 7-0 Aquinas run cut the lead down to seven points with five minutes remaining.

Freshman guard/forward Jayden Jones came off the bench for Lourdes and sparked a 7-0 Gray Wolves run with a three-pointer and mid-range jumper. Jones had 12 points off the bench in the first half to help Lourdes keep an 11-point halftime lead. Jones had a career-high 16 points total in the game, his seventh double-digit scoring game of his rookie season.

2^nd Half
The Saints kept fighting and started off the second half with a 6-0 run to cut the lead back to five points. Lourdes freshman guard/forward Karter Koester struck back with seven points of his own over the next few minutes, extending the Gray Wolves lead to six points with 13 minutes left.

Koester ended the game with 14 points, ending his four-game single-digit scoring drought. The freshman is averaging 9.2 points per game is one of the premier three-point shooters in the nation.

A thunderous dunk by sophomore center Antwaun Hathcock Jr. continued Lourdes' momentum. The Edison State Community College transfer added a layup to push the lead back to 10. Hathcock Jr. had a career-high eight points and four rebounds in the game.

The Lourdes lead was 65 to 55 with nine minutes remaining. All the momentum seemed to be with Lourdes before Aquinas rattled off their best run of the night, a 15 to 7 burst to cut the lead to just two points with three minutes left.

The home crowd was starting to get electric as Lourdes was on the brink of surrendering their lead. However, the freshman duo of Jayden Jones and Karter Koester put the Saints comeback to rest with back-to-back layups and three-pointers. Derek Fairley hit a few free throws in the last minute to ice the game and give Lourdes a six-point win.

Besides the victory, another big win for Lourdes was that freshman guard J'Siah Jefferson played the last 30 seconds of the game, scoring one point. Jefferson has been injured the past few weeks and was a huge two-way player that had started to become the Gray Wolves everyday point guard before missing time.

Stats
Lourdes had one of their best shooting days of the season, going 53.4% from the field and 47.1% from beyond the arc. Aquinas slightly outrebounded Lourdes by two but Lourdes won the turnover battle by one.

Coach DuPree's Postgame Comments
"I thought we started off great on both ends of the court," Coach DuPree said postgame. "We put definitive stops together and we were able to turn that into quality looks on offense. We shared the ball really well tonight. We fought through the adversity at the end when Aquinas made their run."
 
Next Game
The Gray Wolves will head back home on Wednesday, Feb. 11 to take on second place Indiana Tech at 7:30 pm. Lourdes could move into a tie for second place with a victory.