RedStorm men whip Wilmington in home opener

Rio Grande Sports Information
     RIO GRANDE, Ohio - Eric Butler and Jaelin Johnson netted 16 points each to lead a quartet of double-digit scorers for the University of Rio Grande in an 89-65 win over Wilmington (Ohio) College, Wednesday night, in non-conference men's basketball action at the Newt Oliver Arena.
     The RedStorm, who were playing their home opener, improved to 2-1 with a second straight win.
     Wilmington, an NCAA Division III school, tabbed the contest as an exhibition in advance of its official season opener at Mount St. Joseph University on Friday night.
     Butler, a senior from Orlando, Fla., added nine rebounds and three assists in the winning effort, while Johnson - a redshirt junior from Fairmont, W.Va. - connected on a trio of three-point goals and had a pair of steals.
     Graduate senior Milan Square (Youngstown, OH) finished with 12 points and a game-high 10 rebounds for Rio Grande, while senior Eythan House (Montrose, Australia) tallied 11 points in the victory.
     The RedStorm raced to a 9-0 lead to open the game and led by as many as 14 points in the first half before settling on a 13-point advantage, 42-29, at the intermission.
     The visiting Quakers twice closed the gap to 11 points - the second of which came at 54-43 following a layup by Jack Nurre with 14:22 left to play - but got no closer the rest of the way.
     Rio Grande - which remained perfect in nine all-time meetings with Wilmington - led by no less than 18 points over the game's final nine minutes and enjoyed its largest cushion of the night at 26 points, 85-59, when freshman Bransyn Copas (Seaman, OH) hit two of three free throw attempts with 2:26 remaining.
     The RedStorm shot just over 50 percent from the floor overall (32-for-63) and finished 10-for-25 from three-point range (40.0%), while committing only eight turnovers.
     Junior Trey Robertson (Waverly, OH) also had three assists and two steals for Rio.
     Obed Achirem led the Quakers with nine points, while Rashid Chisholm had five rebounds and Carson Miles handed out a pair of assists.
     Dom Farley added two steals in the loss for Wilmington, which outrebounded the home team (40-37), but shot just 39 percent overall (24-for-61), 16 percent from three-point range (4-for-25) and just 56.5 percent from the foul line (13-for-23).
     Rio Grande will play the second of six consecutive home outings on Saturday when it hosts Kent State University-Tuscarawas for a 1 p.m. tipoff.