Franciscan 77, Westminster 99   

Franciscan Starters 

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

Westminster Starters 

Daniel Ritter, Austin O'Hara, Isaac Stamatiades, Tyler James, Reese Leon

How It Happened 

Sean Hickey became the 3rd Baron in the modern era to reach the 1000 point plateau as he made a 3-pointer in the first half of Franciscan's Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) match-up with Westminster. The Titans and Barons would battle for 40 minutes in a fast paced game that saw Westminster come out on top with a 99-77. The Titans shot a very strong 50.0% from the field on the night, as Daniel Ritter would lead the way with 31 points and 10 rebounds.

Josh Zimmerman would hit a three pointer in the early going to give the Barons a 3-2 lead. The Titans would then go on a 13-0 run to pull out to a commanding lead that they would not relinquish.  Westminster would stretch their lead to a high of 19-points, but the Barons kept battling back and chipping away at the lead. Robert Case made his first buckets of his college career, as the bench gave some offensive spark near the end of the half.  Nicholas Allienello made a late corner three to send the Barons to the half down 13 points, 53-40. Daniel Ritter would lead all scorers with 15 first half points. 

Foul trouble became a problem for the Barons quickly, as they racked up seven fouls less then eight minutes into the second half. The Barons kept battling though, as they cut the deficit to eight points with under ten minutes to play after a Tristan McDannell three. The Barons defense was active and effective, as they forced the Titans into 23 turnovers turning those mistakes into 23 points. Westminster would pull away late with an 18-5 run over the final four minutes to win to put the game out of reach.

Inside the Numbers 

-Sean Hickey scored a team high 18 points, passing Reg Wood (1967-71), Brad Hall (1975-79) & Randy Greene (1961-65) to climb to 15th all-time in scoring with 1015 points.
-Justin Mack and Tristan McDannell each added 10 points for the Barons
-Josh Zimmerman pulled down a team high six rebounds.
-The Barons one the turnover battled as they forced 23 and committed 16.
-Franciscan's bench scored 35 points on the night.
-Three Westminster Titans recorded double-doubles: Daniel Ritter 31 pts 10 reb, Isaac Stamtiades 12 pts 12 reb & Tyler James 13 pts 10 reb.
-Franciscan only attempted eight free throws compared to Westminster taking 26 attempts.

Who's Next? 

Franciscan returns home to prepare for their home opener against Thiel next Saturday. The Barons are 0-1 all-time against the Tomcats, but the lone matchup came in 2008. This will be Thiel's first game of the 2020-21 season. They went 6-18 last season to finish 8th out of nine teams in the PAC. A pair of junior forwards look to lead the way this season for the Tomcats, Ahmad Tejumola and Chima Omeihe are the top two returning scorers. Tejumola averaged nearly a double-double with 11.5 ppg and 9.5 rpg. He averaged 11.3 rpg in conference play last season, best among all PAC players. Omeihe came off the bench in every game last season, but still managed to average 11.2 ppg and 7.5 rpg. He had five double-doubles on the year last season.

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