MADISON, N.J. – The Ursinus Men's Basketball team used a big first half to power their way to a 75-56 win over FDU-Florham on Tuesday night in their season opener.
 

The Bears continued their success against the Devils after defeating them 82-59 in Collegeville last season.
 

Senior Ryan Hughes kicked off his fifth year with the Bears by posting a game-high 20 points behind going an efficient 7-of-10 from the field and 5-of-6 from the free throw line. Hughes also added three rebounds, three steals and one assist in the win. Freshman Mohamed Toure impressed in his collegiate debut by adding 13 points off the bench behind going 6-of-11 from the field while grabbing two steals. Junior Trevor Wall added 11 points, four rebounds, three steals, and two assists while sophomore Cole Grubbs fell short of a double-double with nine points plus nine rebounds. Grubbs also added two blocks for Ursinus.
 
 
The game nearly started with two full minutes of action without a point before the Devils got on the board with a layup, but the Bears quickly heated up with a 10-2 run to take a 10-4 advantage at the 15:33-mark. Ursinus continued to pull away early as they added to their lead with an 11-4 run, going up 21-8 at the 11:25-mark of the first half. The Bears then took their largest lead of the first half at 32-13 behind a trio of three-pointers, two of which were made by senior Kyle Maurer. The Devils cut the Bears lead down to 33-21 after holding Ursinus without a field goal for a span of 5:39 before a pair of baskets pushed the advantage back to 37-23 at halftime.
 
 
Hughes got the Bears started right away in the second half with a layup to make it 39-23, but the Devils used another cold stretch from Ursinus to score 11-straight points to cut the deficit down to 39-34 at the 14:23-mark. Wall ended a 5:35 scoreless stretch with a layup and later put the Bears back up by nine off a jumper at 45-36 with 12:46 left in regulation. The Devils chopped the deficit back down to five at 50-45 at the 10:33-mark but would get no closer the rest of the way. Ursinus used a 14-3 run over a 4:07 span to take a 16-point lead at 64-48 and would not look back from there. The Bears did not let their lead go into single digits after going up by 10 points initially at the 8:22-mark of the second half.
 
The Bears shot 55.6 percent (30-of-54) from the field and went 7-of-17 (41.2%) from three-point range behind going 6-of-10 in the first half. Ursinus made 8-of-11 (72.7%) free throws and held a slight 29-27 rebounding advantage. The Bears also scored 22 points off 22 Devils turnovers and got 21 points from its bench. Meanwhile, the Devils shot 47.1 percent (24-of-51) from the field after going 56.2 percent (13-of-23) in the second half. FDU-Florham went just 26.7 percent (4-of-16) from beyond the arc and 4-of-8 (50%) from the free throw line.
 
Michael Dabas led the Devils with a team-high 15 points after going 7-of-9 from the field and Carson Woods notched a double-double with 13 points along with 10 rebounds.
 
 
Ursinus returns to action on Saturday, November 12th as they will travel to face Rosemont at 1 p.m.