Franciscan 100, Bethany 88

Franciscan Starters 

 Noah Griffin, Justin Mack, Josh Zimmerman, Sean Hickey, Joe Vernau

Bethany Starters 

Dalton Harmick, Derek White Jr., Neshawn Brown, Asa Klimchock, Dylan Furlong

How It Happened 

The Barons have a huge second half at Bethany to win their first PAC conference matchup by a score of 100-88. The Barons outscored the Bison by 17 points in the second half as extended full court pressure seemed to rattle Bethany. Sean Hickey and Justin Mack led the way for the Barons with 23 points. Josh Zimmerman scored 12 points and a team high 12 rebounds, to record his first career double double.  

The Barons came out hot as they were able to amass a 9 point lead in the first eight minutes of action. Justin Mack made an early pair of threes, while Noah Griffin and Nicholas Allienello added a three each in the early going. The Bison would get it going though as a 9-0 run over the next two minutes would tie it up. The Bison would remain hot as they would expand the lead up to eight points before Christian Nguyen made a buzzer beating three to send the Barons into the locker room down by five.

A back and forth first five minutes ensued until the Barons tied it up at 60-60 with 15:00 minutes remaining in this one. Freshman Tristan McDannell and Nicholas Allienello helped prove the Barons depth, as they added a couple buckets. McDannell led all players with four steals on the night.  The game continued to be back and forth as it was a 74-74 game with just over eight minutes remaining. Noah Griffin made a three to give the Barons the lead and they would not look back. Sean Hickey would go on a personal run as he scored nine consecutive Baron points, and just like that a double digit lead for Franciscan. Christian Nguyen added a pair of tough buckets late, as the Barons would close out the victory. 

Inside the Numbers 

-Justin Mack scored 23 points, a career high, including a perfect 7-7 from the charity stripe.
-Sean Hickey scored 23 points as well to jump to 18th all-time in scoring at Franciscan with 997 career points.
-Noah Griffin scored 16 points, the most by a Franciscan newcomer in the season opening game in school history.
-The Barons scored 100 points for the second time ever in the Division III era. 
-Dalton Hamrick led all scorers with 28 points for the Bison on 14-24 shooting.
-Franciscan won the rebounding battle 40-37, and had nine turnovers to Bethany's 19.   
-Brendan Riggs scored 17 points off the bench for the Bison, as Bethany's bench outscored Franciscan 31-24

Comments from Coach Wallace

We were thankful to have the opportunity to play today. I'm proud of the toughness our guys showed, and they stuck together and continued to fight for 40 minutes. Sean Hickey and Justin Mack were great today, but I expect those guys to perform at that level. They did what high level veteran guards do. They lead and make winning plays constantly. 

Our new faces looked like veterans today. Noah Griffin was steady as a rock. Christian Nguyen made the splash plays. Tristan McDannell was really locked on the defensive end, and Nicholas Allienello gave us major energy off the bench. Josh Zimmerman played every position tonight. He is dynamic, versatile and urgent. He's a point forward and will be a matchup problem in the future. 

Who's Next? 

Franciscan was supposed to return to action next Saturday at Geneva, but that game has been postponed due to a positive case within the Geneva basketball program. Westminster has agreed to move their game up to January 27th at 6:30 p.m. The Barons will travel to New Wilmington to take on the Titans next week in their season opener. They squared off last season at Westminster where the Titans came out on top 66-59. John Noce led the way for the Barons with 12 points in 23 minutes of play. For the Titans, returner Isaac Stamatiades scored 27 points and pulled in 12 rebounds to lead them to the win. The Barons are 1-3 all-time against the Titans. 

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