STEUBENVILLE – Despite strong play from the team's first-year players, the Franciscan men's basketball team dropped its season-opener to Chatham, 77-64, Tuesday evening.

"I am definitely disappointed in the loss tonight, but the good thing is we have a lot of really good young players," remarked head coach Joe Wallace.

In his first game in a Baron uniform, sophomore Juwan Perkins posted a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds while freshman Josh York came off the bench and drained 15 points, including going 6-f0r-7 from the floor.

"Josh is going to be fun to watch for the next four years," continued Coach Wallace. "He played so hard. He is a blessing that he is here – he's a warrior on that court."

Franciscan kept the Cougars close in the first half until a three-pointer from Anthony Bomar pushed Chatham's lead to 11 points, 22-11, with 9:35 to play. Perkins answered with a jumper from a pass from senior Derrick David to cut the lead back down to single-digits, 22-13. Nasir Alexander hit a three to give CU a 12-point lead and Chatham maintained that lead for the rest of the first half. Freshman Michael Mendicino finished a layup with 24 seconds left to send the two teams into the locker room with the score 39-26 in favor of the Cougars.

Senior Jacob Divens got the Barons within 10, the closest they would come to the Cougars with a layup 44 seconds into the second half. The Cougars built a 21-point lead with 4:01 to play at 77-56, but the Barons finished out the game with eight unanswered points thanks to baskets from Divens, junior Keoni Sablan, York, and Mendicino, to bring the score to its final at 77-64.

Mendicino came off the bench to chip in 10 points while freshman John Noce added seven points, an assist, a steal and block.

"John is going to be a really good point guard. He's strong, he's got confidence. He's tough and he runs this team. That's what a point guard is all about. That's a winning point guard."

The Barons shot 48.1% from the floor (24-50) and scored 32 points off the bench.

"Our defense needs to play better. We shot 48% from the floor. I will take that any day of the week. We just need to get our defense on track"

The Barons head to the Pepsi Tipoff Tournament this weekend hosted by Susquehana University on Friday. Franciscan plays King's (Pa.) in the first game of the tournament on Friday at 6pm.