COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Ursinus Men's Basketball team used a dominant first half to earn an 82-59 wire-to-wire victory over FDU-Florham on Tuesday night in non-conference action at Helfferich Hall.
With the win, the Bears improved to 6-1 overall after tallying their fifth-straight win. Meanwhile, the Devils of the MAC Freedom fall to 3-6 overall.
Senior Ryan Hughes registered his fifth double-double of the season after posting 21 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field and 11 rebounds. Hughes added four assists and one steal as well in the win. Freshman Sean Neylon recorded 17 points behind going 4-of-8 from beyond the arc and five rebounds along with three assists. Junior Kyle Maurer added 14 points, five rebounds, and four assists while sophomore Trevor Wall also posted 14 points along with three rebounds. Freshman Cole Grubbs pulled down a team-high 12 rebounds and tallied four points along with three assists while classmate Marlin Wise added a career-high nine rebounds.
Ursinus made its first five shots of the contest, and the Devils missed their first four, which allowed the Bears to jump out to an early 10-1 lead at the 17:36-mark of the first half. The Bears continued to pull away from FDU-Florham as they used a 9-4 run to go up 19-5 at the 13:55-mark, forcing a second Devils timeout in the opening minutes. A three-pointer from Maurer put the Bears up 26-10 with 9:02 left in the first half and started a burst of three-straight triples for Ursinus that left them up 32-17 at the 6:19-mark. The Devils would not get within less than 13 points to the Bears for the rest of the first half as Ursinus capped its red-hot first half on a made jumper from Hughes with six seconds left to take 49-29 lead into halftime.
The Bears picked up right where they left off to start the second half as a pair of baskets kept them up 20 points at 53-33 with 17:50 left in regulation. However, the Devils made their first extended run against the Bears with 13-straight points over the span of five minutes to cut the deficit down to 53-46. Ursinus ended the FDU-Florham rally with a 15-5 run to take a 68-51 lead at the 9:05-mark of the second half. Back-to-back three-pointers from Hughes and Neylon gave the Bears their largest lead of the game at 76-53 with 4:27 left in regulation. Ursinus did not allow their advantage to fall under 20 points for the remainder of the contest as they put the finishing touches on their win
Ursinus went 31-of-65 (47.7%) from the field and a sizzling 13-of-26 (50%) from beyond the arc. The Bears went a near-perfect 7-of-8 (87.5%) from the free throw line and held a sizable 50-27 edge in rebounds. Meanwhile, the Devils shot 36.9 percent (24-of-65) from the field and went just 4-of-21 (19%) from three-point range. FDU-Florham went 7-of-10 (70%) from the free throw line and forced 11 Bears turnovers.
Oliver Ortman led the Devils with a team-high 21 points and grabbed three rebounds while Shawn Summers Jr. posted 17 points, five rebounds, and three assists. Matthew Johnson added 10 points, five rebounds, and four blocks in the setback.
The Bears will return to action on Saturday, December 11th as they will travel to face Widener at 2 p.m. in non-conference action.