STEUBENVILLE, Ohio – Franciscan men's basketball was tentative in its first home game of the season, falling behind early to conference opponent Pitt-Bradford, and despite putting in the effort until the final whistle, fell 90-79.

The Barons' first three possessions led to two turnovers and a Pitt-Bradford defensive rebound. All three turned into fast break points, and within two minutes the Barons were down 8-0.

"We came out flat and it just kind of stuck," head coach John Lamanna said. "That first half didn't have the energy that we needed; the type of energy that we typically play with."

Senior guard Moses Sullivan, the team's leading scorer, tried to keep the Barons in the game scoring five of the Barons next 16 points as the Barons pulled within three of the Panthers. Sullivan finished the game with 22 points and seven rebounds.

The Panthers responded with their best performance from the three-point line this season. Coming into the game shooting under 30 percent, Bradford's shooters shot 47 percent from three-point land.

"We came out and allowed them to be comfortable," Lamanna said. "Everything was in rhythm."

The Barons looked like they could bring the game back into reach at the end of the first half, but Bradford sophomore forward Zach Smith scored two wide-open threes to help push the deficit to sixteen going into halftime.

Franciscan came out in the second half with the type of energy Lamanna expected in the first half. They started to run a full court press to try to force some mistakes by the other team.

"We were trying to get our aggression level up because we were too passive," Lamanna said. "We were trying to do something to spark our aggression."

The Barons also were able to get contributions off the bench from freshman guard Keoni Sablan and junior point guard Blake Addison, who came in and attacked the basket aggressively, providing a little spark to the stagnant offense.

"We were talking about that during the timeouts," Lamanna said. "They were obviously listening and they went in and did it."

Sablan finished with 12 points on the night while Addison contributed two points and a good offensive penetration.

The Barons also got a lift off the bench from freshman forward John Paul Dombrowski, who came out in the second half playing much stronger against the opposing big men. He made a few nice moves in the post, scoring 10 points and grabbed six rebounds.

""J.P. probably played his best game of the season," Lamanna said. "He really started to make some pretty good plays, some good decisions with the ball. He was for sure a bright spot."

The Barons, with the help of the stand-outs from the bench, battled throughout the second half but never pulled closer than 10 points until there were less than five seconds on the clock.

The Barons hope to bounce back from the loss in their third conference game Dec. 13 at Hilbert College at 4 pm.