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FORT WORTH, TX:  The Texas Wesleyan University men’s basketball team (1-0) took an impressive 96-62 win in their season opener against Sterling College on Friday.
 
The Rams came out firing on all cylinders, hitting at a 70% clip from the field and 62.5% from three-point range in the first half.  Texas Wesleyan scored the first nine points of the game.  Senior transfer Eric Frederick bombed away for five first-half three-pointers as the Rams steadily pulled away on their way to a 58-28 advantage at the break.
 
After Frederick hit 5-of-9 from distance in the first half, it was Ronnie Moss Jr.'s turn in the second half.  Moss drained 5-of-7 in the closing period and finished two shy of a TWU single-game record for made three’s by hitting 7-of-11 in the game.
 
Back-to-back triples from Moss capped an 11-2 run in the second half that pushed the score to 71-41.  From there, the Rams led by as many as 35 points.  Freshman Jon Rutkowski put the exclamation point on the win when he threw down a dunk for his first collegiate points off an alley-oop pass from his Burleson High School teammate Blake Dunson with 28 seconds on the clock.
 
For the game, the Rams shot 63.3%(38-60)  from the floor and 53.3 % (16-30) while holding the Warriors to just 39% from the field and 24% from distance.
 
Frederick led all scorers with 31 points.  Moss finished with 27 points, eight rebounds, and eight assists.  Christopher Britt-Black pitched in 10 points off of the TWU bench, while Brian Talley notched nine points, six boards, and seven assists.
 
Sterling was led by Cody Brazelton’s 27 points, while Trenton Stutzman added 11.
 
“It was good to finally play against someone else,” commented head coach Terry Waldrop.  “We have a lot of work to do still to get to where we want to be, but I thought this was a great effort tonight.”
 
The Rams will return to action on Monday, when they host Oklahoma Christian University.  That game is scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. start in the Sid Richardson Center.