PITTSBURGH, Pa. — Everything came together for Franciscan men's basketball as a poised, aggressive defense and widespread bench production earned them their first conference win of the season, a hard-fought 53-48 battle against La Roche College.

The first half was back and forth, with the Barons pulling ahead 23-20 for a brief halftime victory, but with 5:30 left in the game, Franciscan found itself down by seven points. As the clocked counted down, junior forward Christian Duke nailed two free throws to cut the lead to five, then freshman guard Keoni Sablan added two more.

A jump shot by freshman forward John Paul Dombroski pulled the Barons within one and a huge three-pointer by freshman guard Jonas McCraig finally brought the Barons out ahead. After a Redhawk layup gave La Roche a one-point lead, junior point guard Jacob Divens answered back with a contested layup of his own.

"From that point on we just were able to lock down defensively, get after it offensively and just really play possession very well," head coach John Lamanna said. "The last group of games we've been coming along and we've been competitive but we couldn't quite finish it out. Tonight we were able to do that."

Lamanna said the main differences were strong defensive execution and offensive contribution across the board, particularly in the team's 81.2 percent free throw shooting which added 13 points.

"We've been playing well defensively, but last game we sent Medaille to the foul line too much," Lamanna said. "This game we did a much better job of containing penetration, guarding the ball, and though we gave up too many offensive rebounds, we were able to stop that second chance opportunity by playing another solid defensive stack."

Dombrowski played a big part in the team's defensive success by limiting LaRoche's Arnes Bajgora to 10 points, six of which were foul shots. Bajgora, who averages 17 points a game, met his match in Dombrowski, who had a career high six defensive blocks.

"John Paul did a great job of anchoring down our defense on the interior. His overall defensive presence was significant and a big reason why we did so well tonight," Lamanna said.

While Dombrowski himself was limited to six shots and four rebounds by the Redhawks' zone defense, the Baron's bench more than made up the difference.

McCraig's clutch three was part of his 10 points, tied for a team high with Sablan and combined with freshman forward Daniel McElroy's 8 points to headline Franciscan's reserve charge.

"Our bench production was really the difference-maker offensively," Lamanna said. "Every single person who came off the bench tonight contributed, and we didn't just have one person carry us. That's what separates Franciscan basketball from its opponents. We're able to a go out and compete as a unit, as a group."

The coach added that the night's positive results are an indication of the young team beginning to gel, a process that has been in the making with the improvement of each game this season.

Although the win brought together several positive elements, two continuing areas of growth for the team are rebounding and turnovers. FUS fell behind La Roche in both categories, 26-36 and 15-14 respectively, and as the team turns around to face Mt. Aloysius, Lamanna said they will be refocusing efforts to solidify Baron possessions.

"La Roche and Mount Aloysius are very good rebounding teams and tonight we got beat on the glass," Lamanna said. "We need to try to win the war on the boards and reduce our number of turnovers because 15 is just too much."

The Barons hope to refine the night's success against Mt. Aloysius on Wednesday, January 21 at 8pm.

Meanwhile, Lamanna said he is proud of the men's persistence.

"Our aggression level was high, we played assertive, and we played Baron basketball."