While most of Atlanta was over at the SEC championship game between Auburn and Georgia at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the Morehouse College Maroon Tigers were busy winning a school record eighth consecutive game to start the season. Morehouse defeated visiting Paine College 100-57 by doing what head coach and Morehouse College alum (1980) has been preaching all season: pressure defense. “Pressure either makes diamonds or bust pipes,” said Brewer after the game, “and we want to bust pipes.”
The Lions (1-5) didn’t look ready for what Morehouse was doing on defense early on and it showed during the first half as Paine was forced into 18 turnovers. Paine would have 28 total turnovers by the time the game was over. Six of those by starting point guard Johnnie Robinson III but he wasn’t alone by any measure. All but two of the Lions that played at least a minute had a turnover. Morehouse senior guard Jordan Wallace took full advantage, scoring 11 first half points on 4-8 shooting.
Wallace’s shooting touch wouldn’t be very necessary during the second half (he finished with 13 points) as it wasn’t much better for Paine College as the Morehouse lead would be as high as 31 points as late as the 7:34 mark and even when things went bad -air ball by junior forward Duby Maduegbunam- they still resulted in a Maroon Tiger positive – senior guard Martravious Little the missed shot and converted it into an easy layup. He would have a two-handed dunk down the middle of the lane followed by another Walker three-pointer (his fourth of the game) to keep the lead above 30 points.
Walker scored a game-high 28 points while Little finished with 18 points, both players had three steals. “I love it,” said Little of the way team is playing thus far this season. “Everybody is playing together. I think we played our best game of the season by just having fun.”
On the 28 Maroon Tigers bench points Brewer said, “That’s the way we have this team designed. We’re trying to get as many people on the court and we believe we are deeper than our competitors.”
On the 28 forced turnovers by the Maroon Tigers press Brewer said, “That’s the way we want to play.”
The Maroon Tigers will take their high-octane pressure defense to Lane College before ending the year with two consecutive home games. The December 14 game against the University of the Virgin Islands was cancelled due to Hurricane Irma.
