BOX SCOREPHOTO GALLERYCLEVELAND, Ohio (Dec. 29) – Trine University made 13 of 16 free throw attempts to earn a 62-58 victory over the Saint Vincent men's basketball team in the first semifinal at the Bill Sudeck Holiday Tournament, hosted by Case Western Reserve University.
Junior guard
Pat Jones led the Bearcats with a double-double performance, totaling 18 points and 10 rebounds. Junior guard
JC Howard added 12 points. The loss snapped the Bearcats five-game winning streak and dropped them to 6-4 overall for the season. Trine improved to 6-3 with the victory.
Trine opened up the scoring with a made three-pointer on the game's first possession. SVC battled back to take its first lead of the game (4-3) with baskets from senior
Sean Kett and sophomore
Austin Ford.
The teams continued to trade scores over the next four minutes before SVC put together three straight scores. Jones started the Bearcat run with a jumper. Freshman
Austin Dedert then hit a layup and a free throw for a three point play to give the Bearcats a 13-10, at the 14:48 mark.
Bearcats guard
Jaylon Bell added a layup to push the SVC advantage to 15-10 with 13:21 to play in the first half. The two teams exchanged baskets to put the score at 17-12 in favor of Saint Vincent. Trine then scored the next 10 points to push their lead to 22-17, with 7:51 to play in the half.
SVC responded with layups from Kett and Howard. The four straight points cut the Trine lead to 22-21 at the 6:17 mark. Trine then responded right back with the next five points to take their biggest lead of the first half at six points (27-21). SVC regained the lead with seven consecutive points of its own, making the score 28-27 in favor of the Bearcats with 2:53 to play in the half. Jones made a three pointer and added a free throw, while Howard connected on a trey to cap the run.
The Thunder took back the lead with a layup at the 2:16 mark, which concluded the scoring in the first half. Both teams shot the ball well over the course of the first 20 minutes, Trine made 12-of-24 (50 percent) on field goals, while SVC connected on 12-of-25 (48 percent) from the field.
Trine scored the first 10 points of the second half to push its lead to double digits (39-28) for the first time in the game. While the Thunder offense was going to work, Trine held SVC off the scoreboard for the first six and half minutes in the second half. Bearcat junior
Geoff FuQuay ended the offensive drought with a layup at the 13:16 mark.
The Bearcats slowly trimmed the Thunder's lead as Bell added a layup for SVC. Sophomore
John LeGrande pulled down an offensive rebound and a layup to cut it to 39-34 with 11:22 to play.
Kory Schulz drained a three-pointer to make the score 41-37 with just under 10 minutes to play. Trine pushed the lead back to eight points at 47-39 with 6:22 to play.
Jones continued to carry Saint Vincent with six straight points to cut the deficit back to four (49-45) with 4:30 to play. After two free throws for Trine, Howard connected on a three point play, cutting the Trine lead to three points (53-50) with 1:51 to play. Jones hit a jumper with 34 seconds to play, cutting the Thunder lead to 59-56. However, Trine made just enough free throws down the stretch to hold on for the victory.
Jared Holmquist of Trine (Ind.) led all scorers with 25 points. Tyler Good and Ben Syroka tallied 13 and 10 points, respectively, for the Thunder.
Both teams shot pretty evenly, Trine made 46.8 percent from the field, while SVC converted 46.0 percent of field goal attempts. SVC made four three pointers to three pointers for Trine. The difference was at the free throw, as the Thunder converted 15-of-21 attempts, while the Bearcats made 8-of-10 attempts at the charity stripe. SVC held a 34-23 advantage in rebounding.
The Bearcats will play in the consolation round tomorrow against the loser of the Case Western Reserve/Geneva game, which was held after the Bearcats game this evening.
