WAYNESBURG, Pa. – Franciscan men's basketball played an even game through the first half against a more experienced Waynesburg University team, but second-half mistakes led to a deficit that the Barons could not overcome in a 78-47 loss.

"Unfortunately, we weren't able to put two halves together," head coach John Lamanna said. "It comes back to lack of maturity and experience as a group where we're still trying to learn how to play a full 40 minutes."

Coming off a long break during final, the Barons battled through a low-scoring first half, building up small leads over the upperclassmen-heavy Yellow Jackets in the first half. Freshman forward John Paul Dombrowski led the team with six points and six of his nine rebounds in the first half.

Their defense showed marked improvement from the previous game in the first half, Lamanna said, holding Waynesburg to 39 percent shooting and forcing 7 turnovers.

"We were trying to clean up our defense, which we did for 20 minutes, but we fell back to what we did in the previous game in the second half," Lamanna said.

After being down by just five points at halftime, the Barons came out flat and allowed the Yellow Jackets to go on a 9-0 run to start the second period.

"It's what we've been dealing with all season long," Lamanna said. "It's about a six possession stretch where we don't play well. As a whole unit, we let our guard down, and you can't do that on the collegiate level."

The Barons, who began the game so optimistically, failed to generate much offense in the second half as Waynesburg dropped 48.

"Right from the tip we were aggressive," Lamanna said. "We just couldn't sustain that during the second half. We fell back into that passive play, and we weren't able to bounce back from that."

Franciscan was outscored 48-22 in the second half, but Lamanna said he saw a lot of improvement from the previous game, especially defensively in the first half.

"It shows that we can do it," he said. "It's just a matter of consistency and it's more mental focus and mental consistency, not physical. It's understanding how you get yourself prepared for the start of the game. That's step one. Step two is how do you get yourself prepared to come out and play with the same intensity and aggression to start the second half."

Lamanna said these things will come as the team grows and plays together. Waynesburg, whose starters were all juniors and seniors, represent the experienced team that the Barons can become.

"I do know when our guys reach that point," Lamanna said. "We're going to be even more seasoned and we're going to have a chance to look back at this experience and say, 'This is what we need to do.'"

The Barons will try to put together a complete game against Muskingum University at home on January 3 at 3 pm.