The Griffins began PSAC West play on Wednesday evening as they traveled to CalU for the conference opener.
Rashaad Williams scored a career high but it was not enough as California pulled away late as they defeated the Griffins by the score of 87-78. SHU falls to 12-3 overall and 6-1 in the PSAC. CalU improves to 10-4 overall and 7-0 in the PSAC.
Seton Hill took an early 7-4 lead over the Vulcans behind a three from
Camden Brewer and baskets from
Edir Ortiz and
Kedrick Curtis. CalU responded with an 8-0 run to take a 12-7 lead with 13:35 left in the half.
Rashaad Williams ended the run with a three pointer. Williams scored 13 straight points for the Griffins as SHU took a 22-21 lead with 7:40 to play in the half. Williams three pointer with 4:38 left gave the Griffins a 29-28 lead with 4:38 to play. Williams hit another three pointer with 3:24 left as SHU took a 33-28 lead. A three point from from Curtis and a Gillespie bucket pushed the lead to 38-28 with 2:20 to play. The Griffins led 40-33 at the halftime break.
CalU opened the second half with an 8-2 run as they cut the Griffins lead to 42-41 just over a minute into the half. Five straight from Curtis and a
Gabe Gillespie basket gave SHU a 49-45 lead with 16:18 to play. Williams answered with five straight points and a Curtis driving layup extended the SHU lead to 56-52 with 13:17 to play. A key portion of the contest occurred around the 10 minute mark. Ortiz hit a three to give SHU a 61-58 lead and Williams followed with three free throws after being fouled and a technical foul on a CalU player gave SHU a 64-58 lead with 9:22 to play.
After five straight from CalU, Williams answered with back to back threes to extend the lead to 70-66 with 7:03 left. CalU then took a 73-71 lead with 4:55 to play. The Vulcans built their lead to 77-73 with 3:29 to play. Williams then hit two of three free throws to cut the lead to 77-75. The Vulcans then closed the contest on an 10-3 run, most of the points from the free throw line.
Williams led the Griffins with a career high 36 points on 8-11 shooting from three point land. Curtis posted a double double of 19 points and 10 rebounds. Ortiz just missed a double double with 13 points and nine rebounds.
SHU will host Clarion on Saturday afternoon in another PSAC West contest.