Franciscan 76, Chatham 110

Franciscan Starters
Josh Zimmerman, Joseph Silveira, Colton Hage, Aidan Hickey, Nicholas Allienello 

Chatham Starters 
Cintron, Smith, Boyer, Gartley, Bomar

How It Happened 
    The Barons lost at home to the Chatham Cougars after the second game in a row of facing a hailstorm of 3pts. In the first two minutes of play, there Barons had good defense forcing tough shots and gathering the rebound. On the offensive end they had high percentage opportunities but failed to convert a few. They saw a 5-4 lead to start, but that was the last time the lead for the rest of the game. The Barons dug themselves into a 13 point deficit with 13 minutes still left in the first half. Josh Zimmerman put the team on his back for a couple minutes. He was a stalwart on defense and pressured the rim on offense. He drew multiple fouls from the Cougars and cut the lead to 8. This run was quickly negated by poor communication on defense. Chatham shooters broke free from the help defense and buried every shot they took. They put the lead up to 20 with 6 minutes remaining. Once again the Barons started chipping away at the lead. None of the Chatham defenders could stay in front of Aidan Hickey. Coach Wallace shifted the lineup and went small putting Nicholas Allienello in the high post. For 4 minutes, Nick, Aidan, and Josh were in sync with each other on both ends of the floor and got the lead down to 11 shortly before halftime. 
    Coming out of the half the Barons were trailing by 13. The Cougars shot 70% from the field and 71% from 3pt in the second half. This level of shooting quickly extended the lead to 20. After six minutes of battling and trading points, the Cougars launched another run off three point shooting, and the lead became 30. With tonight's loss, the Barons went 1-9 in the first go through of conference play. 

Inside the Numbers 
-Josh Zimmerman lead the Barons in scoring with 16
-Adian Hickey had 12 points with 1 steal, 1 assist, and 3 rebounds
-Thanks to Derrick Derrow and Frank Bellissimo, the Barons saw 38% shooting from 3pt
-The Barons allowed 10 offensive rebounds in the second half
-The Barons saw season highs in both free throw attempts and shooting percentage with 25 attempts and 80%

Up Next 
    Franciscan will have a week off between games, as they get back into action at Allegheny next Saturday. This will be their second matchup all-time against the Gators and their first trip to Meadville in program history. In their November meeting this season, The Gators had four players score double-digit points. Travis Lien led the way for the Barons with 19 points and 10 rebounds. 

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