Barons Suffer Loss to First Place Medaille

The Barons basketball team of Franciscan University of Steubenville hosted Medaille College on Saturday night, losing 82-58.  With the loss, the Barons fell to 2-6 (1-4) on the season.

The Barons got off to a fast start, leading for the beginning of the first half.  However, Medaille got on a 3-point shooting streak in the middle of the half which gave them a 38-19 lead at halftime.  Franciscan kept pace with Medaille in the second half, but leading scorer Matt Liedel fouled out of the game, at which point Medaille was able to solidify their lead and take an 82-58 win.

Matt Liedel led the all scorers with 22 points on the night.  Connor Flanagan had 10 points, and Pete Burak contributed 9.  Ron Malicki led Medaille with 17 points, while teammates Keith Hack and Ben Kopp had 15 and 11 points, respectively. 

"We dug ourselves a deep hole in the first half," Barons coach Sean Donovan remarked.  "Outside of that, though, we really kept pace with them.  It's a game of runs, and we need to play forty good minutes, not just twenty.  We didn't shoot well tonight, and Matt Liedel, our top scorer on the night, fouled out with nine minutes to go, which certainly didn't help things. We got some good minutes from the bench, though, and everyone gave us a solid effort today."

The Barons' next contest is this Tuesday at Mount Aloysius College at 8 p.m.