Kaleb Scott, Presbyterian College’s junior forward from Raleigh, N.C., played a splendid game to lead the Blue Hose past Johnson & Wales (Charlotte) on Saturday afternoon at Templeton Center.

Scott, who transferred to PC from Georgia State, recorded his first “double-double,” tacking on 12 rebounds to his 22 points. He successfully converted 10/12 shots from the field as the Blue Hose snapped a three-game losing streak with a 91-67 victory.

“It was great to see Kaleb have a good game because he’s going to be real important to us as we get into league play,” stated PC head coach Quinton Ferrell.

Junior guard Marquis Barnett scored 18 points and grabbed six rebounds. Senior guard Kobe Stewart added 14 points on 5/7 shooting from the field off the bench for the Blue Hose. Junior guard Jamahri Harvey rounded out Presbyterian’s double-figure scorers with 10 points.

The Blue Hose scored a season-high 60 points in the paint. The Wildcats had 22.

Jaden Scriven led the Wildcats with 14 points and Jaben Mars added 12 for Johnson & Wales (3-6). Cameron Lawson had four assists.

Presbyterian’s Samage Teel started the scoring off by converting a driving layup. The lead exchanged hands a couple of times. With Johnson & Wales leading 7-6, Barnett completed a three-point play and the Blue Hose never trailed again.

With PC leading 20-14, the Blue Hose went on a 7-0 run behind five points from Stewart to take a 27-14 lead with 8:26 on the clock.  After a basket by Johnson &Wales, the Blue Hose went on another long scoring run with an 11-0 scoring outburst, pushing their lead to 38-16 after a steal and fastbreak dunk from Barnett with 3:51 on the clock. Stewart, Scott, and Harvey also scored during the run. The Blue Hose enjoyed a 46-21 halftime lead.

Johnson & Wales scored seven straight points to start the second half, cutting PC’s lead to 46-28. That was as close as they got.

Two free throws from Stewart with 14:45 on the clock gave PC a 61-32 lead, the widest margin that was reached three other times, and the Wildcats never again got closer than 22.

Ten Presbyterian players scored in the win. Presbyterian’s defense held Johnson & Wales to 21 points and .333 (8/24) shooting from the field in the first half.

Presbyterian begins Big South Conference play on the road at Charleston Southern on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Presbyterian shot .521 from the floor, .300 from long range and .647 from the foul line. Johnson & Wales’ corresponding numbers were .440, .538 (7/13) and .640. The Blue Hose forced 19 turnovers and committed 11.

“I told our guys when we first got back (from Christmas break) that we’ve got to get back to playing defense at the level our program has played it,” Ferrell stated. “We needed to establish an emphasis going into this game. It didn’t matter who the opponent was.

“It was going to be about us doing the things we work on every day. I’m just worried about our execution of what we’ve been working on.”

Take a look at the stats here.

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