STEUBENVILLE – Playing their fourth game in eight days, the Franciscan men's basketball team fell to visiting D'Youville Spartans, 72-69, Saturday afternoon.
 
"The crowd was electric again. It's such an experience to play in front of so many passionate fans," remarked head coach Joe Wallace. "We are so appreciative of the support."
 
The Barons held a slim 31-26 lead at halftime, but the Spartans opened the second half with a  9-0 run over the first three minutes to take the 37-31 lead. Franciscan used a 5-0 run over its own to trim the lead down to one, 37-36, thanks to a layup from junior Matt Trent (Cleveland, OH/Trinity) and three-pointer from sophomore Sean Hickey (North Olmstead, OH/Holy Name) with 16:14 to play.
 
The Spartans took their largest lead of the game, 61-53, after back-to-back layups from Jeremy VanDuluitgaarden and Simeon Heard with 5:27 to play. Once again, Franciscan got the lead down to one possession with 2:01 to play as Hickey led a 7-1 scoring run with a layup and a three. D'Youville pushed its lead back up to six, 66-60, with 40 seconds to play in regulation.

Coach Wallace called a time out and coming out of the short break, the Barons set up a play and sophomore Christian Comenge (Covington, LA/Home School) nailed a three in the corner to get it back down to one possession, 66-63, with 25 seconds left. Trent was able to steal the inbound pass but an offensive charge call gave the ball back to the Spartans with 19 seconds left. After the Spartants hit three of four free throws to push their lead to 69-63, Comenge got fouled on a three-point shot and hit two of three free throws with 12 seconds left to cut the deficit to 69-65.
 
D'Youville hit the front end of a trip to the line and Hickey pulled down the rebound on the second missed shot and drove to the basket to cut the lead to 70-67 with four seconds left. The Barons fouled quickly in hopes of getting the ball back, and after Heard hit both free throws, junior John Noce (Brewster, NY/John F. Kennedy Catholic) finished the game with a layup at the buzzer. The Spartans hung on to win 72-69.
 
The Barons and Spartans opened the game with a back-and-forth affair before the Barons took an 13-5 lead with 12:09 to play thanks to a jumper from junior Josh York (Russia, OH/Russia Local). The Spartans trimmed the lead down to two, 16-14, with 8:23 to play, but the Barons maintained a steady lead before expanding the gap to eight, 31-23, with 56 seconds left in the first. The Spartans scored the last three points of the first half to send the game into the break, 31-26 in favor of Franciscan.
 
"We played 4 games in 8 days and it finally caught up to us," remarked Coach Wallace. "Going into this home-stand I thought 2-2 would be good. The competition was tough, but we went 3-1 against four good teams. We are very proud of our guys. They have to keep moving forward but  5-3 is a nice start."
 
The Barons hit the road for the next two games as they visit Mt. Aloysius on Wednesday for an 8pm AMCC tilt and Medaille on Saturday for a 3 pm AMCC contest.