GREENSBURG, Pa. - The Seton Hill University men's basketball team's second half comeback fell short Wednesday evening as the Griffins fell to Bloomsburg, 78-70, in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference action inside the Katherine Mabis McKenna Center.
The Griffins slip to 6-11 overall and 3-9 in the PSAC. Bloomsburg improves to 10-6 overall and evens their PSAC record to 6-6.
Seton Hill bolted out of the gate, scoring the game's first five points to take a 5-0 lead just under two minutes into the contest. Bloomsburg would battle back and cut the lead to one, 5-4, with 16:47 on the clock, but Seton Hill responded with an 8-2 run to push the lead out to 13-7 with 14:19 remaining in the first. However, the visitors would go on a run of their own and outscore Seton Hill by a 11-4 margin to take a one-point lead, 18-17, with 9:09 showing on the clock. The Huskies pushed the lead out to 16, 39-23, before going into the break with a 39-28 lead.
The two teams would battle back-and-forth for the first part of the second half. However, with the Huskies up 52-38, the Griffins finally got the stick back into drive.
Trevor Blondin and and
Brandon Alston hit three's to bring the lead back down to single digits followed by Alston hitting one of his two free-throws to cut the shortfall to 52-45 with 13:16 to go.
Nathan Davis' layup off of a turnover dropped the Bloomsburg lead to five, 52-47. After BU's Austin Harriott made good on two free-throw attempt, Davis responded with a three to bring SHU to within four, 54-50, with 11:26 remaining. The two teams would miss on three-point attempts, but a layup by
Trevor Lecuona and a layup by Blondin off of another BU turnover evened the game, 54-54, for the first time all evening. However, the Huskies would score the game's next nine points and thwart the Griffin comeback on their way to the 78-70 win.
Trevor Blondin led the Griffins with 20 points on 6-of-15 shooting, including 3-of-5 from three-point range and 5-of-6 from the foul line. Blondin has now scored 20+ points in eight games this season.
Nathan Davis scored 18 points on the back of a 4-for-7 performance from long-range.
Trevor Lecuona and
Spencer Casson each chipped in with 11 points while
Brandon Alston led the rebounding effort with 10.
Bloomsburg was paced by Khary Mauras' 22 points. Christian Mortellite came away with 16 points. Kyle-Michael Rose, Hashim Moore, and Austin Harriott all had 11 points in the win.
For the game, Seton Hill made 27-of-67 (40.3%) total shots from the floor, including 9-of-20 (45%) from three. The Griffins were 7-of-10 from the foul line. SHU scored 34 points in the paint, had 15 second chance points, 11 points off of turnovers, 10 fast break points, and just four points off of the bench. Bloomsburg made 26-of-59 (44.1%) shots and was 7-of-23 (30.4%) from distance. The Huskies made 19 of their 23 (92.6%) shots from the charity stripe. Bloomsburg had 36 points in the paint, 13 fast break and second chance points, and 16 points from the bench. BU received 21 points off of turnovers.
Seton Hill returns to action on Saturday when they host the University of Pittsburg at Johnstown on Saturday. Tip-off is scheduled for 3:00 PM and will be broadcasted live on the Westmoreland Sports Network.
