CLEVELAND – The Franciscan men's basketball team fell to Case Western Reserve, 78-48, in the opening game of the 2018 Bill Sudeck Tournament hosted, by Case Western Reserve, Friday evening.

The Spartans opened the game on a 9-0 run thanks to a pair of layups and five free throws on five attempts in the first 3:21 of action. Junior Joe Schriner (Bluffton, OH/Bluffton) nailed a three-pointer in the corner to cut the lead down to six before sophomore Sean Hickey (North Olmstead, OH/Holy Name) hit his first three of the game with 16:27 to play to get the Barons to within five, 11-6. After almost two minutes with a basket for either team, junior Josh York (Russia, OH/Russia Local) ending the scoring drought with a driving layup to cut the lead back down to three, 11-8, but that would be as close as the Barons would get.

Over the next three minutes, the Spartans used a 10-2 run to take their first double-digit lead of the game, 21-10, and the Barons would not be able to bring the deficit back down to single digits. With 5:23 to play, CRWU pushed its lead to 22, the largest lead of the first, but junior John Noce (Brewster, NY/John F. Kennedy Catholic) went coast to coast and completed the layup to trim the lead to 34-14. The Spartans continued to roll in the first and pushed their lead back to 22, 40-18, with 47 seconds left before the break. Senior Juwan Perkins (Detroit, MI/Oak Park) ending the first-half scoring with a good free throw to cut the CRWU lead to 41-20 at the half.

Ignas Masiuluonis hit a three immediately coming out of the break and Case eventually took a 34-point lead, the largest of the contest, with 15:14 to play, 53-19.
The Spartans maintained their 30+ point lead for most of the second until sophomore Nate Nowicki (Newark, OH/Newark Catholic) checked in at the 12 minute mark and drilled a three with 10 minutes to play to halt the Spartan run. Franciscan got the deficit back down to 23, 71-48, with 2:02 to play as freshman Danny Zuchak (Rittman, OH/Rittman) finished a layup after grabbing the defensive board.

The Spartans closed out the game with a 7-0 run to seal the 78-48 win.

Nowicki led the Barons with nine points, while sophomore Joe Vernau pulled down a team-best five rebounds. The Barons got 13 points off the turnover and 25 points from their bench.

The Barons look to get back into the winning column tomorrow as they play in the consolation game of the Bill Sudeck Touranemnt at 1:00 pm against Keystone College.