MIAMI SHORES, Fla. – A strong second half lifted the Ursinus Men's Basketball team to an impressive 83-75 win over Carthage on Thursday afternoon at the Cruzin Classic.
 
 
The Bears improved to 4-6 overall and completed a split during their trip down to Florida. Meanwhile, the Firebirds fell to 8-4 overall after recently losing their Top 25 ranking in the D3hoops.com poll.
 
 
Senior Trevor Wall was clicking on all cylinders for the Bears with a season-high 34 points behind shooting 11-of-16 from the field and 5-of-7 from three-point range with 24 of the points coming in the second half. It was just two points shy of his career-high of 36 set back in February 2022 and he posted three assists plus two rebounds as well. Sophomore Nick Nocito tallied 18 points behind going 8-of-15 from the field and snatched five rebounds while junior Cole Grubbs matched his career-high of 14 rebounds along with scoring eight points. Sophomore Mohamed Toure fell just short of a double-double with 10 points and eight rebounds off the bench.
 
 
The Bears surged ahead at 14-7 with 14:53 left in the first half following a 9-2 run and maintained a 16-9 advantage just over 30 seconds later. Carthage fought back to tie the game with seven straight points to only be answered by five straight from the Bears. However, the Firebirds got red hot from the field with a 17-4 run over the span of 6:20 to take their largest lead of the game at 33-25. Ursinus worked the lead back down to three points on two occasions in the final minutes and the Firebirds took a 41-36 advantage into the half.
 
 
Carthage scored the first basket of the second half before the Bears reeled off 12 straight points to take a 48-43 lead at the 16:08-mark. The teams traded baskets over the next few minutes which left the Bears up 56-53 at the 10:22-mark following a three-pointer from Nocito. The Firebirds took the lead back at 57-56 a minute later and led 59-58 at the 7:39-mark before Wall answered with a three-pointer to give Ursinus a 61-59 lead. Five-straight points from the Bears put them up 66-61 with 5:24 left in regulation and they would not allow the Firebirds to get within more than two points the rest of the way. Ursinus went 14-of-16 from the free throw line in the final four minutes to lock up the win and held the Firebirds without a field goal for a span of 2:55.
 
 
Ursinus shot 47.4 percent (27-of-57) from the field after shooting an even 50 percent in the second half. The Bears went 10-of-21 (47.6%) from three-point range and 19-of-28 (67.9%) from the free throw line while each team grabbed 42 rebounds. Meanwhile, the Firebirds shot 37 percent (27-of-73) from the field after shooting just 30 percent in the second half. Carthage went only 21.9% (7-of-32) from beyond the arc and shot 73.7 percent (14-of-19) from the free throw line.
 
 
Antuan Nesbitt led the Firebirds with a team-high 21 points and dished out a game-high five assists.
 
 
The Bears have over a week off and return to action on Saturday, December 30th as they will travel to face Goucher at 3:00 p.m.