ST. THOMAS, Virgin Islands – No. 21 Warner took down Wilberforce University and Doane University to open up the 2019-20 campaign.
Excitement had been building on the Warner campus as the Royals brought in one of the strongest recruiting classes in Men's Basketball history. The Royals built on the success of last season and opened up with a triple digit 109-99 victory over Wilberforce followed by a 82-68 victory over Doane.
Maxwell Benoit, the senior transfer out of the University of West Florida, did not disappoint. He launched an offensive attack of 29-pts against the Bulldogs and 26-pts against the Tigers. The total of 55-pts in the two games gives him an average of 27.5-pts a game. He shot .679 from the field while hitting .500 of his shots from beyond the arch. He took 14 free-throws and made 12 of them for 86% at the charity stripe.
The returning Sun Conference freshman of the year,
Darryl Mercer Jr., had 27-pts on the weekend with 8 assists and 3 steals and was a perfect 5-5 on free-throw attempts.
Bart Schild also had a good weekend with 26-pts, 10 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 steals.
Joshua Rathell boasted a team high 7 steals on the weekend. He also added a block and 20-pts.
Jaquez Dickerson led the team in rebounds with 16 on the weekend with 13 of the boards being defensively. He also led the team with a pair of blocks.
The Royals picked up a pair of victories to open the season. In the two games, they shot .549 from the field as a team and hit .726 of their charity stripe attempts. They picked up 4 blocks as a team and an impressive 21 steals.
It was the first time either of these teams had met up on the basketball court in the school's history. The Royals will open up their home schedule against Johnson University next Saturday during homecoming weekend.
