CHESTER, Pa. – The Ursinus Men's Basketball team dropped an 86-73 contest to Widener on Wednesday night in non-conference action.
 
 
Junior Marlin Wise and senior Trevor Wall tied for the Bears lead with 16 points along with adding three assists apiece, while Wise completed a double-double with 10 rebounds. First-year Luke Nieman impressed with 14 points off 5-of-7 shooting from the field while grabbing four rebounds and sophomore Mohamed Toure tallied 13 points and five rebounds.
 
 
Ursinus got off to a strong start in the first half as they made their first three shots of the game to go up 6-2 at the 18:13-mark. However, the Pride responded with a 17-3 run over the span of 4:29 to go up 19-19 at the 13:44-mark of the first half. The Bears could not overcome that Pride run as they tried to claw their way back but would only get within six points for the rest of the first half. A layup from junior Cole Grubbs, making his season debut, pulled Ursinus within 27-20 at the 10:05-mark before Widener pulled ahead with a 21-7 run to go up 48-27 with 4:28 left in the first half. The Bears did gain some momentum to end the first half after a three from Nieman in the final minute capped a 12-4 run to make it a 52-39 game into the locker rooms.
 
 
The Bears got the first two points of the second half off free throws from Wise to make it a 52-41 game, but the Pride went another extended run again, this time a 14-3 burst, to take their largest lead of the game at 66-44. However, Ursinus took a huge run at the Widener lead by going on a 20-3 over the span of 5:20 to cut the deficit down to five points at 69-64. Unfortunately for the Bears, that would be as close as they would get for the rest of the game. Widener held Ursinus without a field goal for 5:57 and countered with a 16-4 run that helped them pull away.
 
 
Ursinus shot 51 percent (26-of-51) from the field and 35.3 percent (6-of-17) from three-point range. The Bears shot just 57.7 percent (15-of-26) from the free throw line but 24 turnovers that led to 33 Widener points ultimately proved to be the difference. Widener shot 45.1 percent (32-of-71) from the field and 38.1 percent (8-of-21) from deep behind shooting 58.3 (7-of-12) in the first half beyond the arc. The Pride went 14-of-21 (66.7%) from the free throw line and held a 35-30 rebounding advantage plus a 36-17 edge in fast break points.
 
 
The Bears return to action on Saturday, November 18th as they will host Rosemont in non-conference action at 1:00 p.m.