Franciscan 56, Saint Vincent 70
Franciscan Starters
Sawyer Butler, Josh Zimmerman, Malachi Rose-Burton, Nicholas Allienello, and Yann Yonkeu
How It Happened
The Barons lost to the Saint Vincent Bearcats at home last night, and fall fro 5th to tied for 6th in the PAC. This game began exactly how the Barons like it. A grindy, physical battle. Going into the under-12 min media timeout there had only been 20 total points scored. The Barons smothered every high pick and roll action and played tight perimeter defense. Bearcats' Ostrwoski who enjoyed a 39 point performance in their last meeting, had nowhere to move this time around. The defining stretch of this game came shortly after that media timeout. A few bad turnovers and a lull in shooting landed the Barons in a dry spell offensively. Comparatively, the Bearcats found some seams, hit back-to-back deep three pointers, and scored some points at the rim while capitalizing on the Baron turnovers. This small slip saw the tight contest slip to a double digit lead. Before going into halftime the Barons got out of the funk and the game was back to a break even back and forth.
The second half was more topsy turvy. The Barons went on runs and looked dominant for a few possessions, then the Bearcats would answer with a big shot of their own or steals in the back-court that led to easy transition points. The best run the Barons made was midway through the second half. Both of the Zimmerman's were dialed in. Josh was getting into the paint and to the rim at will and Travis cleaned up the glass while finishing possessions emphatically. Josh had two possessions taking the defense head on and finishing in the paint. The Bearcats tried to answer that by setting up a play for their star athlete Gales. Their action sucked the defense into the lane, then they dumped it baseline to Gales. He took off from outside the lane and with both hands tried to break the rim with his dunk. Karl Yonkeu gave him the Mutombo special. He flew over from helpside and stuffed the dunk attempt. The Barons quickly transitioned down the court and had a baseline dump off of their own. This time Travis Zimmerman caught it and showed his opponent how its done. The Yonkeu blocked dunk followed by the Zimmerman two-handed jam was the most exciting 10 seconds of basketball Kuzma court has ever seen. The lead was then 8 and the energy in the gym made it feel like Bearcat doom was impending. But once again, a couple deep shots and a Baron turnover jumped the lead back up to double digits.
The Barons seemingly did everything right. They smothered the top scorers holding everyone to under 15, beat the Bearcats on boards, and found a great rhythm offensively in the second half. The difference was 17 turnovers. Those turnovers all seemed to come at the least opportune times. The Bearcats didn't pass the eye test. If you couldn't see the scoreboard, they didn't look like they were winning or even close. But again, those untimely turnovers are quick easy points that suck the momentum out of a run.
Inside the Numbers
-The Barons were led by Travis Zimmermans' double-double performance
-Travis is now 6th in the PAC in rebounds and 3rd in offensive rebounds
-Travis and Josh Zimmerman were the only Baron scorers in double digits
Up Next
Franciscan remains at home to take on Grove City on Saturday. It will be Kuzma Day in Steubenville, as the Barons honor the late, great Hank Kuzma, winningest coach in program history and so much more. The Barons look to honor his legacy on the floor and beat Grove City, who beat Franciscan earlier this season. The Wolverines took a 15 point lead into halftime and maintained that margins, as they won 73-58. Josh Zimmerman and Travis Zimmerman led the Barons with 15 points each in the loss.
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