Memphis Standard

Last weekend, the Rhodes Lynx Men's Basketball team split their games for a win and loss before returning home Friday night for a match up against the Centre College Colonels. With the Senior Night recognition event taking place pre-game, senior guard Kris O'Brien out of Hudson, Massachusetts, put Rhodes up on the board first with a triple from the left wing. 

Centre College tried to garner some space by going on a 10-0 run over the next 3:21 of gameplay thanks to some outside shooting. After catching back up, freshman Phil Dotson hit a three of his own to give Rhodes back the lead at 14-12 with 10:16 in the half. The Lynx went into the half time up 30-29 after 20 minutes of basketball that featured 6 lead changes and 4 ties. 

The Lynx went straight to business quickly notching an 8-2 run over the first two minutes of action back from the locker rooms. The Colonels, however, resumed their march with a 7-3 run answer of their own to slow the prowl of the Lynx to a crawl, closing the gap to 41-38 with 15:29 on the clock. Once again, cue Dotson to swing the momentum around for Rhodes. After laying in two acrobatic buckets under the basket, he sparked another run for the Lynx as they scored 8 unanswered points over the next four minutes, going up 49-38. Over that span, he had 6 points of his own. 

With 9:12 left to go in the game, senior Koki Wiley strung together a dish and a fastbreak layup in back to back possessions to join O'Brien for some more senior highlights. Senior Jalen Essick saw that and answered with another two back to back buckets of his own for Rhodes just minutes later. Jefferson Walker, Jr., made sure his senior night was an active one, as well, with two steals in the second half.

Despite one last fierce march from the Colonels in the final minutes, the Lynx got the win to clinch Coach Zo's first winning season as head coach of Rhodes Men's Basketball to improve to 13-6 on the season (6-4 in conference). A balanced effort from the starters and the bench led to a 66-65 victory over Centre College. Dotson was the only player for the Lynx to get in double-digits, and he did it off the bench, finishing with 15 points and 7 rebounds. He provided immediate energy playing an important part in leading key runs for the Lynx.

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