Men's Basketball Edged by Haverford

Men's Basketball Edged by Haverford

COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – Despite a huge second-half scoring spree from Ryan Hughes, the Ursinus College men's basketball team couldn't contain Haverford's deep attack as the Bears suffered a 70-63 Centennial Conference setback.

Hughes scored 20 of his game-high 26 points after intermission, but it wasn't enough to counteract a hot-shooting Fords squad that drained 15 3-pointers on the way to completing the regular-season sweep. Four players knocked down multiple triples for Haverford (13-5, 8-3).

The Fords blitzed the Bears (9-9, 4-7) from the outset, piling up a double-digit lead before the contest was even five minutes old as Jackson Ryan buried a pair of 3-pointers. Haverford went on to knock down seven triples in the first 10 minutes, the last a right-wing swish from Jesse Turkson that opened up a 24-8 advantage.

The rest of the half was all Ursinus, and the hosts got back in it with a diametrically opposite approach. Lucas Olshevski injected a massive boost off the bench, making all five of his shots to lead all scorers with 10 points and provide a physical presence on the inside. As Haverford began to go cold, the Bears found their footing on offense.

Hughes' crossover into a deep 3 as the shot clock expired pulled the home side to within 26-17, and Olshevski banged his way to back-to-back buckets in the paint before Ryan McTamney connected on a mid-range jumper to make it 28-25. The Bears got within three twice more before Jack Cork hit an elbow jumper just before the buzzer to send the Fords into the break with a 34-29 lead.

The black and red picked up right where they left off after the break, with Joe Wujciak dropping in a 3 to make it 37-29. Hughes, however, single-handedly brought the Bears back to even terms with a personal 8-0 run to knot the spread at 37 with 15:01 remaining.

Haverford went back to what worked in the first half, stringing together five more treys over the next few minutes and restoring a double-digit cushion at 54-43 with just under 11 minutes to play. The Bears could get no closer than seven the rest of the way.

Hughes finished 9-of-17 overall and 4-of-7 from 3-point range, adding four rebounds, two assists, and two steals. Olshevski landed on 12 points and made all six of his shots, while McTamney had 11 points and six rebounds and George Gordon chipped in 10 points and five boards. Bruce Edwards led all players with 11 rebounds.

Ursinus shot just 38.2 percent from the field (26 of 68) and 21.7 percent from beyond the arc (5 for 23).

Six Haverford players scored at least seven points, led by Ryan's 12 and Love's 11. The Fords were 15 of 33 (45.5 percent) from 3 and racked up 20 assists, including six from Wujciak.

Ursinus hopes to get back on track with a trip to McDaniel on Saturday.