Franciscan 58, Grove City 73

Franciscan Starters
Josh Zimmerman, Sawyer Butler, Karl Yonkeu, Frank Bellissimo, Travis Zimmerman 

How It Happened 
    The historic arena in Grove City, Pa has a mystifying aura around it. For some reason teams walk in favorites and somehow struggle to come out with a win. The Wolverines are incredible at home. Highlighted by the fact that the Barons have never walked out of that gymnasium victors. The Wolverines long-time coach has a system and has never wavered from it. There are two big keys every time you face Grove City. One key is on offense and the other on defense. For the Barons to defeat the Wolverines they must succeed in physically dominating the flex offense system. The flex is a game of inches and going through players is the only option. There is always a counter if you try to go around. The second key is finding the weak spot in the matchup zone defense that denies wings and tries to stifle perimeter ball movement. Similar to the defensive key, the Barons need to be physical and willing to drive into traffic, take on the pressure, then find the open man through the chaos.
    Thankfully, the Barons are anything but afraid of being physical. Playing against the flex plays into their physical and stylistic strengths. In the first half, the Boys performed as expected. They were physical and disrupted the flow of the flex offense causing it to break down and often times look ugly. The unfortunate part is that broken plays and loose balls fell into the hands of a red jersey and the Wolverines got a lot of easy opportunities after the scramble for the ball. The biggest issue to face is the offensive end. The Barons shot 29% from the field. The playmakers got into the mix, but either couldn't find the open man or shooters were standing out of position and not ready for the opportunity. Cleaner and higher quality offensive possessions force the Wolverines to go into a set half-court defense, and lead to more defensive stops. Going into half, Franciscan was down 41-26. 
    Out of the half break, the Barons went into their full court press, they got some easy transition opportunities, and the half-court offense picked up. After only scoring 26 points in the first half, they put up 20 in just the first 10 minutes of the second half. After forcing a couple turnovers and cutting the lead down to twelve, Butler found Travis Zimmerman on a post entry pass. Travis made a quick right shoulder turn move and finished with an emphatic two hand dunk. The energy surged through the team and sparked a run that brought the Barons to within four and ball in hand looking to make it a one possession game. However, the Wolverines found their own energizing play. Butler drove into the lane and put up a floating layup. His attempt was blocked. That miss was quickly scooped up by a red jersey then flung down court for a fast break dunk. That momentum swing pushed the lead back out to a three possession lead and the Barons never threatened that lead again. The late game fouling strategy to stop the clock and hope your opponents don't score at the free throw line didn't work out. The Wolverines were 17-18 from the line. 
    The Barons loose their second game of the year and fall to 0-2 in the PAC. 

Inside the Numbers 
-The Barons improved on their first half shooting to finish 33% from the field
-They allowed 60% 3pt shooting from the Wolverines
-The Barons had 18 offensive rebounds.
-Travis Zimmerman had a game-high 11 boards and 15 points for his first double-double of the year

Up Next 
Franciscan continues PAC play on the road, as they travel to St. Vincent on Tuesday. The Bearcats have won the last four matchups, as Franciscan is looking for their first win over them since February 12, 2022. In that 85-75 win, Sean Hickey led the way with 30 points, including seven made three-point field goals. Saint Vincent was picked to finish 2nd in the PAC Preseason Coaches's Poll.

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