COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Ursinus Men's Basketball team opened their 2022-23 home slate in a big way on Tuesday night as they earned a convincing 99-72 win over TCNJ at Helfferich Hall in non-conference action.
 

With the win, the Bears improved to 3-0 overall for the first time since the 2016-17 season and avenged a 79-63 setback to the Lions last season. Tonight's game was the season opener for TCNJ.
 
 

Senior Ryan Hughes continued his scorching hot start to the season by recording a game-high 25 points behind going 9-of-11 from the field and nearly missed out on a double-double with nine rebounds. It was his third-straight game of 20 or more points to open the season and he also tallied five assists plus three steals. Junior Trevor Wall posted 21 points after going 8-of-13 from the field and 5-of-7 from three-point range. Freshman Mohamed Toure impressed with 14 points behind going 4-of-8 from the field and sophomore Marlin Wise added 11 points off the bench after making all four shot attempts.
 
 

The teams countered each other with baskets to open the game, but a theme began to play out of the Bears having an answer any type of potential Lions runs. Ursinus jumped ahead 4-2 at the 18:25-mark and stayed ahead the rest of the way. The Bears used a 10-5 run to go up 16-9 at the 14:18-mark which forced TCNJ to take a timeout. Ursinus went nearly three full minutes without scoring a point but quickly bounced back with a 13-4 run to go up 29-16 with 8:21 left in the first half. The Bears built a lead by as many as 14 points in the first half at 37-23, but it was the Lions that entered the half with some momentum as they used a 10-4 run to make it a 41-33 game.
 
 

Sophomore Jaiden Jakubowski got things going for the Bears with a layup on their first possession of the second half, which set the tone for a complete showing from Ursinus in the final 20 minutes. Senior Kyle Maurer knocked down a three-pointer at the 17:46-mark to push the Bears lead to 12, and the lead would not enter single digits for the rest of the contest. The Bears began to pull away behind an 18-6 run to go up 61-42 at the 14:10-mark before stretching their advantage into the 20's after Wall drained a three-pointer at the 11:54-mark. The Bears had an answer for any Lions basket as TCNJ only scored consecutive field goals once in the second half. Ursinus shot a blazing 72.4 percent (21-of-29) from the field in the second half and went 9-of-12 from three-point range.
 
 

After the red hot second half, the Bears finished the contest shooting 60 percent (36-of-60) from the field and 59.1 percent (13-of-22) from three-point range. Ursinus also went an efficient 14-of-18 (77.8%) from the free throw line. The Bears got 39 points from its bench and scored a whopping 25 points 18 Lions turnovers. Meanwhile, TCNJ went 43.3 percent (26-of-60) from the field and 41.7 percent (10-of-24) from three-point range. The Lions went 10-of-16 (62.5%) from the free throw line and held a slight 32-31 advantage in rebounds.
 

Pat Higgins led the Lions with a team-high 17 points and grabbed five rebounds. Danny Bodine and Anthony DiCaro each posted 13 points for TCNJ.
 

The Bears return to action on Saturday, November 19th as they will continue their homestand by hosting Widener at 1 p.m.