CRESSON, Pa. – The Franciscan men's basketball team's late second-half run came up just short as the Barons fell to Mount Aloysius, 70-56, Wednesday evening.

Trailing 59-48 with 3:09 to play, junior Matt Trent (Cleveland, OH/Trinity) grabbed an offensive rebound and put the ball back up to get the Barons to within nine and drew a foul as he made his layup. After a successful free throw, the Barons were within eight at 59-51. After Mount Aloysius hit the front end of a trip to the line in their next possession, Trent got the Barons to within seven after two good free throws with 2:17 to play. The Mounties answered with two of their own before Trent hit a jumper in the paint to keep the game at seven, 62-55, with 1:21 to play.

With time winding down, head coach Joe Wallace was forced to foul to preserve the clock, but the Mounties were able to hit seven of their final eight free throws to seal the 70-56 win over the Barons.

After Mount Aloysius got out to a quick 3-0 lead in the first half, Franciscan took a 4-3 lead thanks to back-to-back buckets from sophomore Sean Hickey (North Olmstead, OH/Holy Name) and Trent. The Mounties then used a 9-1 scoring run to push their lead to eight, 12-4, with 13:33 to play. Franciscan halted the run as junior John Noce (Brewster, NY/John F. Kennedy Catholic) hit a jumper and freshman Justin Mack (Oxnard, CA/Oxnard) drained a three to pull within three, 12-9, with 12:04 to play. The Mounties pushed their lead back to seven as they hit a three and the subsequent free throw after a foul to lead 16-9 with 11:06 to play. Mount Aloyius used a 10-5 scoring run over the next five minutes to push the lead to double-digits, 26-14, with 5:49 to play. Hickey halted the run with a three at 5:36 but a 9-2 run for the Mounties gave them their largest lead of the game, 35-19, with 2:01 to play in the first.

Trent stopped the run with a layup and senior Juwan Perkins (Detroit, MI/Oak Park) hit a three with 56 seconds to play to get the Barons back to within 12, 35-23, and Noce finished a layup as time was expiring before the half to send the teams into the locker room with the score 35-25 in favor of Mount Aloysius.

Mount Aloysius maintained its double-digit lead for most of the second half before a layup at 9:32 from Trent the deficit down to nine, 49-40. A three from Hickey on the Barons next offensive possession got the Barons to within six, 49-43, but the Mounties answered with a three at the other end of the court to re-take the nine point lead, 52-43, with 7:58 to play.
The Mounties pushed their lead back to double-digits with 5:51 to play with a  three-pointer from Carlos Palacios and a pair of free throws from junior Joe Schriner (Bluffton, OH/Bluffton) got the Barons back to within eight, 56-48. Mount Aloysius took an 11-point lead thanks to another three from Palacious, 59-48, to set up the late run by the Barons.

Trent led all players with 19 points and 16 rebounds while Hickey added 13 points for the Barons. Noce dished out four assists to go with his five points and six rebounds.
The Barons held a 41-36 rebounding edge over the Mounties while shooting 30.0% (21-for-70) from the floor.

Franciscan continues its short roadtrip as the Barons head to Medaille on Saturday for a 3:00 pm AMCC tilt.