PITTSBURGH, P.a.—With a strong second half effort the Franciscan University men's basketball team battled their way to the end of a 79-69 loss to conference foe La Roche College.

"We were with them fine throughout the first but it was a bad end to the half," head coach John Lamanna said. "We're still searching for on the floor leadership and that's what we need to continue to grow."

The Barons played the court evenly with the Redhawks for the majority of the first half keeping the game within four points until the last three minutes. Then, things seemed to slip from the Barons' hands as the Hawks took a run and ended the half with an 18-point lead.

"Those last few minutes are not indicative of how we are capable of playing," Lamanna said. "We were more consistent and took care of the ball more in the second half."

Going into halftime with such a deficit, the Barons were motivated to come back on the court with a stronger presence all around and closed the gap to 11 by the end. The team managed to improve from the first half by only turning the ball over four times in the second half compared to the nine in the first.

"We made better decisions in the second half as well. Our defense was significantly better," Lamanna said.

Indicative of the Baron defensive pressure increasing was the Redhawks shooting percentage was 61% in the first half and the Barons forced it to drop to 31% in the second.

Keeping the ball alive on offense for the Barons were sophomore Timmy Schenk and junior Joseph Rine both scoring 18 points. Rine was also a strong presence on the opposite side of the court bringing down 13 rebounds.

"The fact of the matter is we had possession of the ball more in the second half and we rebounded the ball better in the second half," Lamanna said.

Up next for the Barons is a home game on Jan. 18 at 1p.m. against conference opponent Medaille College and the team is looking forward to have another opportunity keep moving on.

"We have to keep growing and learning," Lamanna said. "The season is a journey and it's not where you start but where you finish and if we can finish better than when we started this year will be a success."