GLENVILLE, W. Va. – Urbana University men's basketball fell in Saturday's road game at Glenville State College by a final score of 79-62 inside the Waco Center.
UU dropped to 2-6 overall and 1-3 in conference play while GSC improved to 6-2 (3-1 MEC) on the season.
Freshman
Mario Lacy Jr. led with a career-high 20 points on 9-of-12 shooting and grabbed eight rebounds. Freshman
Brandon Michrina also scored a career-high 15 points off the bench. Additionally, freshman
Shaunn Monroe and sophomore
Caiden Smith also reached double digits in the scoring column with 10 points, each. Sophomore
Kyle Kegley was active on the interior and grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds.
The Pioneers raced out to an early 11-2 lead by taking advantage of three early Urbana turnovers and four fouls within the first four-plus minutes. The Blue Knights turned it over an uncharacteristic 17 times and were whistled for a season-high 24 fouls in the game.
After trailing 26-11, Urbana climbed back with an 8-0 run with all eight points scored by Lacy. That forced a Glenville timeout with the Pioneers' lead trimmed to seven, 26-19, with 7:02 remaining in the half. Later on, Michrina scored back-to-back layups to hold the deficit at seven going into halftime with Glenville in front, 37-30. The Blue Knights shot just 1 of 13 from three-point range in the opening period, but benefitted from 10 offensive rebounds.
Unfortunately, the Blue Knights could never get over the hump.
Glenville strung together another early run in the second half and built a 47-34 lead. The closest Urbana would get the rest of the game was 10 points as Michrina's second trey made it 49-39 with just over 13 minutes remaining. But, the Blue Knights' momentum vanished quickly as the Pioneers countered with a 14-3 run to put the game out of reach.
GSC's Phil Bledsoe led all scorers with 26 points and 13 rebounds. He went 9 of 21 from the floor and 7 for 7 at the line.
Both teams shot under 40 percent in the contest, but Glenville took advantage at the free-throw line by making 26 of 34 while Urbana made just 8 of 16 attempts.
The Blue Knights couldn't get anything to drop and were limited to a season-low four made 3-pointers (4-23). Three of those belonged to Michrina as Monroe knocked down the only other trey.
UP NEXT: UU takes on West Virginia Wesleyan (2-7, 2-2 MEC) on Wednesday night in Buckhannon, West Virginia.
