Franciscan 81, Washington & Jefferson 99

Franciscan Starters
Josh Zimmerman, Travis Lien, Colton Hage, Nicholas Allienello, Benjamin Klement 

Wash. & Jeff. Starters 
Mazza, Mitchell, Langston, Gearhart, Bigley

How It Happened 
    The Barons fall to 0-6 in the conference. The Barons JUCO transfer Joseph Silveira saw his first action of the season today. Silveira had an immediate impact to help the Barons pressure the rim and break the President's trapping press. In his 17 minutes, he scored 14 points off 6-7 shooting with 5 rebounds, and 1 assist. His counterpart Yann Yonkeu, traditionally a defense only guy, grabbed 8 offensive rebounds and drew fouls on the top President's scorers. The Barons settled into the game and started breaking the press. They went on a run to end the first half tying the game up after being down 7.
    The demons that haunted them early in the first half came back, but instead of settling in and capitalizing on the over-extended President pressure the Barons began racking up turnovers. The top three scorer's had a total of 17 turnovers. The lone bright spot for the Barons guard play came from Aidan Hickey. Hickey had 8 assists to only 3 turnovers. 
    For 30 minutes the team played like a team that can beat not any the reigning PAC champions but any other team in the conference. Unfortunately a basketball game is 40 minutes and 31 total turnovers while shooting 9-22 from the free throw line spells trouble for any team. 

Inside the Numbers 
-Travis Lien led the Barons scorers with 18 points
-Yann Yonkeu led the Barons in rebounding with 11
-Aidan Hickey had a game-leading 8 assists
-Tonight's game had 14 lead changes
-The Barons shot a season-high 42.1% from 3pt

Up Next 
    Franciscan returns to play on Monday, as they host Penn State New Kensington at 6pm in Finnegan Fieldhouse. The Barons are 2-1 all-time against the Lions, including a 100-82 win last season at their place. Four Barons scored double digit points that night, including Josh Zimmerman with 17 and Colton Hage with 14 in the win. The Lions are have already played 12 games this season and hold a record of. 6-6. They just lost to Grove City this Saturday in their last time out on the floor. 

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