LATROBE, Pa. (Nov. 26)- The Saint Vincent men's basketball team pulled out a thriller against Franciscan on Tuesday night.
 
The Bearcats (3-3 , 1-2 PAC) were powered by a massive 39-point performance from junior guard Dev Ostrowski to a tight 76-72 victory over Franciscan (4-3, 0-3 PAC). Dev's heroic scoring along with the Bearcats' swarming defense was enough to lift Saint Vincent to its 3rd win of the season and its first win in conference play.
 
As previously mentioned, Dev was the star of the show pouring in 39 points on 13-27 shooting from the field and 7-14 shooting from deep. He was not the only Bearcat to get it going though as Osyon Jones added 13 points on 6-11 shooting with 7 rebounds and Mike Iuzzolino contributed 14 points on 5-10 shooting from the field and 3-8 shooting from deep.
 
The first half was competitive with neither team being able to push out any big lead. The game started slow with the scoring being 7-5 Franciscan after four minutes. Both teams were playing strong and disciplined defense with the Barons deploying a full court pressure and trap to keep the Bearcats off rhythm.
 
The Bearcats were able to pull ahead and take the lead thanks to an 8-0 run capped off by a huge three-pointer plus the foul by guard Mike Iuzzolino. Saint Vincent switched to a 2-3 zone in this stretch that forced the Barons into tough jumpers from the outside.
 
The Barons responded with a 16-6 run of their own to take the lead with a score of 22-20 with eight minutes left in the half. Franciscan was able to use their positional size advantage in many spots to overpower Bearcat defenders in man coverage and tightened the defense to hold the Bearcats to 3-7 shooting and force 2 turnovers over that run.
 
The lead would grow over the next several minutes thanks to some sloppy turnovers from Saint Vincent and some hot shooting from Franciscan. The Barons would hold a 30-22 advantage with four minutes left in the first half.
 
After that point, the Barons would score just 5 the rest of the half while the Bearcats were able to put up 9 thanks to some good ball movement and decisive attacks.
 
It is the Bearcats' hustle and effort that kept this one close at the half as they trailed 35-31. The offensive numbers could not be anymore different as the Barons shot 72% from the field in the first half and 50% from deep as the Bearcats shot just 32% from the field and 25% from deep. Those numbers usually lead to a big score difference, but the Bearcats found themselves down just four points thanks to 7-2 advantage on the offensive boards and a swarming and active defense that forced 11 Baron turnovers.
 
Ostrowski started the second half blazing with 8 quick points to give the Bearcats a 43-39 lead after the first 3 mins of the 2nd half. He started the half on a personal 5-0 run to give Saint Vincent the lead and from there the game settled into a back-and-forth affair with both teams finding success on offense. The score sat at 45-43 Saint Vincent with 15 minutes to play in the game.
 
Ostrowski remained on fire, nailing 3 straight threes to push the Bearcats lead to 11 by the score of 54-43 with about 13 minutes to play. Those three's pushed Dev over 30 points on the game as he was a one-man offense for Saint Vincent.
 
He scored 21 points in the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half to push the Bearcats ahead and keep them there, leading 56-45 with 10 minutes to play. None of the scoring felt forced either, he was playing in rhythm and within the system to find his openings and rain in three's.
 
For the next 7 minutes the teams traded baskets as both offenses continued to click. The Bearcats were holding a steady 9 to 11 point lead until the Barons went on a quick 10-0 run in just a minute and a half to cut the lead down to 2 with just 2 minutes to play with the score sitting at 72-70.
 
After a huge offensive rebound to take the clock down to 1 minute remaining Osyon Jones turned the ball which eventually led to the Barons tying it up at the line with just under 40 seconds left.
 
After draining some clock the ball found its way to Ostrowski in the corner where he was once again the hero, knocking down the corner triple with a hand in his face to give the Bearcats a 75-72 lead and cap off a monstrous 39 point performance.
 
After a timeout the Barons attempted a three to tie the game that was rejected on the perimeter by Jevontae Jones. Jones was also able to secure the rebound and was fouled coming down to the court with just six seconds remaining. He missed the free throw but a careless Franciscan turnover iced the game as the Bearcats held on to win 76-72.

The Bearcats were able to battle through a rough early start on offense to find their flow in the second half mostly thanks to a Superman type effort from Dev Ostrowski. The defense also showed up in this one. Despite allowing high percentages of 63% from the field and 44% from deep the Bearcats defense forced a whopping 21 turnovers along with grabbing 20 offensive rebounds. That effort gave the Bearcats 21 one more shots than the Barons, which was the key factor in pulling out this 76-74 win despite shooting just 41% from the field.
 
The Bearcats will look to keep the winning going this Saturday, November 30th against Hood at home. Tip-off is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. at the Robert S. Carey Center.