Men's Basketball lost a hard-fought conference opener against (4) William Penn University at Ralph Nolan Gymnasium on Saturday.
The Ravens led for most of the game, but the Statesmen executed better down the stretch to earn the 83-81 win.
Down 80-79 with 1:16 to play, the Ravens got a bucket from Eric Krus to move in front by a point. On the other end, Tyson Cathy blocked Nathan Gehring's shot and Nysir Scott was fouled. Scott missed the front end of a 1-and-1. Again, the Ravens defense forced a miss, and Jaiden Bristol was fouled for a 1-and-1 with 18 seconds to play. However, Bristol was unable to make the first foul shot and after a Statesmen timeout, Kevion Blaylock drove to the paint for a basket, was fouled, and made his free throw with 4 seconds to play, giving WPU a 2-point lead. Bristol's tightly-contest shot at the buzzer missed and the Ravens lost by 2.
The Ravens held a 46-37 lead at halftime, due in large part to the teams' 3-point shooting discrepancy. The Ravens converted 7-of-14 from deep in the first 20 minutes while the Statesmen failed to connect on eight attempts. The Statesmen entered the game allowing opponents to shoot just 17.1% from 3-point range.
WPU did its work in the paint, pulling down 25 rebounds, compared to 16 for the Ravens, and scoring 28 points inside.
The Ravens were led by Matt Austin's 12 points in the opening half and Chris Jackson had 11 points.
In the second half, the Ravens pushed their lead to as many as 12 points with 16 minutes to play, but the fast-paced Statesmen were able to cut it to a 3-point deficit with 10 minutes to play. The teams battled back-and-forth in the closing minutes with WPU ultimately winning out.
Blaylock's 26 points led all scorers. Jackson finished with 19 to lead the Ravens, while Austin had 17, Bristol scored 16 and Krus had 12.
WPU entered the game the top team in the nation in rebounding, averaging 60 per game. They had 49 on Saturday, with the Ravens grabbing 30 boards. WPU's 19 offensive rebounds turned into 18 second-chance points.
The Ravens finished the game shooting 46.7% from the field and 52.2% from deep, but they made just 2-8 from the foul in the second half.
The Ravens are 3-2 on the season, and 0-1 in Heart play. They'll return to action Wednesday, Nov. 18 at Baker University.
