COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Ursinus Men's Basketball team opened its 2023-24 season with an 89-72 victory over FDU-Florham on Wednesday night at Helfferich Hall in non-conference action. 
 
 
It was the second-straight season the Bears have defeated the Devils to open the season. New FDU-Florham head coach Keith Hack spent six seasons as an associate head coach under Kevin Small at Ursinus. 
 
 
Senior Trevor Wall led all scorers on the floor with 20 points while adding five assists, five steals, and four rebounds. Junior Jaiden Jakubowski registered a career-high 17 points on a near-perfect 6-of-7 from the field and 4-of-4 from the free throw line. Sophomore Mohamed Toure also recorded a career-high in points at 16 while adding six rebounds. Junior Marlin Wise was the fourth Bear starter in double-figures with 12 points behind going 5-of-8 from the field and grabbing five rebounds. 
 
 
Ursinus took the early advantage and a pair of layups from Jakubowski put the Bears up 10-4 at the 16:36-mark of the first quarter. However, the Devils used a 21-7 run in just under an eight-minute span to take their largest lead of the game at the 8:37-mark. FDU-Florham continued to maintain a two-possession advantage at 29-23 with 4:18 left in the first half, but the Bears surged ahead with 13-straight points to take a 36-29 lead at the 1:22-mark. The run turned out to be decisive in the contest as the Devils did not lead the rest of the way. 
 
 
Leading 39-32 at the halftime, Ursinus began to pull away as they opened on a 20-8 run in the first 5:09 of the second half to go up 59-40. The Devils made cut a small chunk into the Bears advantage by going on 15-7 run to make it a 66-55 game at the 9:34-mark. However, Ursinus responded with a 13-4 run to go up 79-59 with 6:08 left in regulation. The Bears stretched their lead up to as many as 24 points in the second half as they cruised to the season-opening win. 
 
 
The Bears shot 48.3 percent (28-of-58) from the field behind going 51.6 percent in the second half. Ursinus went 30.8 percent (8-of-26) from three-point range and a solid 83.3 percent (25-of-30) from the free throw line. Ursinus held a slight 34-33 edge in rebounds and forced 20 turnovers. Meanwhile, the Devils shot 45.9 percent (28-of-61) from the field and 34.5 percent (10-of-29) from beyond the arc. FDU-Florham went 6-of-9 (66.7%) from the free throw line and got 31 points from its bench.
 

Brian Nichols led the Devils with 14 points behind going 4-of-7 from three-point range and grabbed five rebounds. Carson Woods added 11 points, five rebounds, and three steals for FDU-Florham.
 
 
Ursinus returns to action on Saturday, November 11th as they will travel to face TCNJ at 5:00 p.m.