Franciscan 61, Thiel 59
Franciscan Starters
Josh Zimmerman, Sawyer Butler, Joseph Ciola, Nicholas Allienello, Derrick Derrow
How It Happened
In front of a standing room only crowd in Finnegan Fieldhouse celebrating the great Hank Kuzma. The men followed the women's performance completing the Franciscan sweep of the Tomcats in Steubenville. This win for the men inches them closer to the PAC playoff birth. During pregame warmups, the clock stopped with eight minutes remaining. The Baron teams and fans cheered for the late Hank Kuzma's wife Kay who was joined by her son, grandson, and granddaughter. Honoring the family whose name is encompasses the court and fieldhouse is a yearly tradition at Franciscan. This year we also honored Dr. Georges and his late parents professor Danny and Mary Georges. Professor Georges was a great benefactor and teacher at Franciscan. He was also good friends with coach Kuzma. To celebrate their dedication to Franciscan and all that their son Dr. Georges has done, a plaque commemorating Professer Danny and Mary will be hung in the fieldhouse. The third and final commemeration was to present Josh Zimmerman with his 1000 point ball. Zimmerman became the 4th Franciscan player to reach 1000 points last Wednesday at home vs Bethany. He then went on to lead the Barons to victory with 15 point 10 rebound double-double.
For the last half dozen or so games, the Barons had a pattern developing. Hot starts off the tip followed by sloppy second half play. Today that pattern was repeated. The hot start brought to you by Joseph Ciola followed by a tough stint late in the first half and the middle of the second half. Today the upperclassmen leadership and some outstanding defense late held the Barons together. The final four minutes were a dogfight stuck in a tie. Thiel's final offensive possession ended in a steal from Karl Yonkeu. It was a tie game with 15 seconds remaining. The Barons raced down the court and called their final timeout once on their side of halfcourt. On the inbound play Thiel's Harden got his hand on a pass. Harden and Butler raced for the ball. Butler reached it first and Harden fouled him as he gained control of the ball. The officials made the call and sent Butler to the line to shoot a one and one. Unfortunately for Thiel Sawyer Butler leads the PAC in free throw percentage. He hit them both to improve to 87.3% on the year and gave the Barons a two point lead. All the defense needed to do was hold on for six more seconds. Harden went coast to coast and got a layup attempt off. Thankfully Frank Bellissimo gave just enough contention to not foul, but encourage a miss. Bellissimo then came down with the rebound and sealed the Baron victory.
After the game Sawyer Butler was reviewing his efforts in the win. Ecstatic with his defensive efforts he said, "It felt good to be locked in on defense. Coach Wallace always stresses defense, because no matter how good or bad you're shooting, defense is the one thing you can control. Going forward, I need to continue to help my team by limiting my turnovers. Four from me was too many."
Inside the Numbers
-Zimmerman had a team-high 15 points
-the Baron defense held Thiel to 32.7% shooting
-Zimmerman is now averaging 9.2 reb/game tied for best in the conference
-Yann Yonkeu is averaging 8 reb/game over the last 5 games
Up Next
Franciscan will remain at home to take on Geneva on Wednesday night. The Barons are looking to snap a seven game skid against the Golden Tornadoes with a win. In November, Geneva defeated Franciscan 71-54 in Beaver Falls. Derrick Derrow led the Barons with 18 points, but the Geneva defense stifled the Franciscan offense.
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