Franciscan 58, Thiel 54

Franciscan Starters
Josh Zimmerman, Sawyer Butler, Nicholas Allienello, Frank Bellissimo, Travis Zimmerman 

How It Happened 
    The Baron Tomcat matchup is rarely an offensive spectacle. Both programs pride themselves in defense and have long athletes across all positions. This leads to low-scoring, high-fouling, and rarely pretty. Saturday night's game delivered as promised. 
    The Barons shot the ball decently well in the first half going 42.8% from the field, but were forced to work the entire shot clock each possession to find their opportunity. The Tomcats were less effective shooting, but made up for it with offensive rebounding. The game went into the half break 26-24 Barons. 
    Keeping the Tomcats off the glass continued to be a problem early in the second half, and the Barons found themselves in a seven point hole with just 11 minutes remaining in regulation. Coach Wallace found a winning lineup of J. Zimmerman, Butler, Richards, K. Yonkeu, and T. Zimmerman who together clawed their way back and tied the game with six minutes left. They continued with that momentum and built a five point lead in just a minute and a half. The Barons led 51-46 with 5:15 remaining on the clock. However, some fouling and a couple turnovers caused the Barons to go cold. They didn't score another FG the rest of the game. Up until that point, the Tomcats were dominating the Barons in the FT game, but when it mattered most the Boys rose to the occasion and converted at the line. The remaining seven points were all scored at the line including back-to-back trips for Butler in the last 20 seconds to put the Barons up four, and seal the victory.
    It was a hard fought and roller coaster game, but the Boys have now strung together two solid conference wins.

Inside the Numbers 
-Butler's 22 brings his season average to 18.9 pts/game
-The Barons limited their turnovers recording 12
-Freshmen Nathan Richards came off the bench and registered 4 assists
-Butler was a perfect 8-8 from FT, the rest of the team was 9-18 for 50% FT shooting

Up Next 
Franciscan will resume play at Allegheny on December 14th. The Barons are 1-3 all-time against the Gators, as they split wins in a pair of meetings last season. The home team came out on top in each game during the 2023-24 season. Franciscan won big, 94-69 in Steubenville. Five Barons scored in double-figures, as Karl Yonkeu led the way with 17 points on 7-12 shooting , Yann Yonkeu played well with a double-double of 14 points and 10 boards. 

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