Men's Basketball leads off the WHAC season with 86-71 win over Michigan-Dearborn

(Dearborn, MI) - The Rochester Christian Warriors men's basketball team headed down to Dearborn, Michigan, to open its Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) slate against the Michigan-Dearborn Wolverines. The Warriors outscored UMD in both halves en route to the 15-point victory. 

The Warriors improve to 2-0 on the season, while UMD drops its first game of the 2025-26 campaign. 

FIRST HALF

James Fisher started his 21-point night with an opening possession bucket. UMD scored a couple of baskets before Darnell Turner Jr. scored four straight points. Fisher would continue his scoring with the next seven RCU points to start the Warriors on a string of points. Tyler Allen and Jahmil Mashhour added a couple of buckets to give the Warriors a 19-11 lead. UMD brought the game to with six before a pair of Dustin Farrow free throws. The Warriors made it to the under-10 media timeout with a 27-19 advantage. 

Coming out of the timeout, the Wolverines scored the first five points before Ashton Goul broke the run, making two free throws. Just before the under-5 media timeout, UMD drove the RCU lead down to three points. The Warriors were able to drive the lead back up, with points from Tymias Williams, scoring five, including three off an old-fashioned 3-point play.  Mason Parker added to the offense with a 3-point bucket to bring the lead out to nine. 

SECOND HALF

Tyler Allen opened the second half with a bucket for RCU. James Fisher, Linden Holder, and Tymias Williams added points to extend the RCU lead. That trio would score 16 straight points for the Warriors before Dustin Farrow added points. Michigan-Dearborn would go on a 9-2 run to bring the lead back down to single-digits just under the 10-minute mark in the period.

Over the next eight minutes, the Warriors scored 12 of the next 14 points, also taking their largest lead of 21 at the 2:44 mark. A couple of UMD baskets closed out the remainder of the game clock. 

TOP PERFORMERS

Three Warriors recorded double-figures in the game, led by James Fisher with 21 points, followed by Linden Holder and Tymias Williams with 16 and 13, respectively. Holder once again led in the assist department with five in the game. 

Three different Warriors tallied double-digit rebounds, with Tymias Williams leading the group with 11, while Dustin Farrow and James Fisher both had 10. Fisher had his second straight game with three blocks, while Williams recorded three steals in the game. 

UP NEXT

The Warriors are back in action tomorrow evening with an exhibition match against NCAA Division 1 Oakland University at the OU Credit Union O'Rena in Rochester Hills, Michigan, with a 7 PM tipoff.