Franciscan 72, Thiel 76

Franciscan Starters
Josh Zimmerman, Nicholas Allienello, Derrick Derrow, Joseph Ciola, Yann Yonkeu 

How It Happened 
    The Barons had a better start than their Wednesday road game, but still found themselves in an early hole. Poor first half shooting led to a deficit of seven going into half. The defense was in-sync again for the first half. The Barons held the Tomcats to only 33 points. 
    The offense picked up in the second half which led to, thus far, a season-high shooting of 43.5% from the field. Unfortunately, that pickup came very late in the half. The deficit was at it's highest of 16pts with just under 7 minutes remaining. A combination of defensive changes, ramping up the full court pressure, and finding the right lineup of Zimmerman, Derrow, Butler, Ciola, and Allienello was exactly what they needed to mount a comeback and bring the game to within three with under a minute to play. Down one possession with only seconds remaining, the hope was to get the poor shooting Tomcats to miss a couple free throws then hit a long three point attempt. However, Thiel's Harden went 1 for 2 from the line and the hail mary three point attempt clanged off the front of the rim. The Barons lost a tough one by four and fall to 0-2 in the conference.

Inside the Numbers 
-Derrow and Sawyer Butler had career-highs of 20 and 21 points respectively
-Butler's 21 lead all scorers on the day
-The Barons were out-rebounded 49-34
-Only three Barons scored in double figures.

Up Next 
Franciscan will return home on Tuesday to take on Grove City in a PAC matchup. The Barons are 4-12 all-time against the Wolverines, as they are attempting to break a three-game skid against them on Tuesday. The Barons last beat them in November of 2021 by a score of 93-78. Five players would score in double-figure while the Barons made 17 three pointers in the massive home win. 

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