ALLENTOWN, Pa. – The Ursinus Men's Basketball saw its season end as they were eliminated by Muhlenberg 74-53 on Tuesday night in the first round of the Centennial Conference Tournament.
The Bears wrap up the 2022-23 season with 15-11 overall record after qualifying for the Centennial Conference Tournament for the second-straight season and third in the last four seasons. The Mules will now advance to take on top seed Johns Hopkins in the semifinals on Friday night.
Senior
Ryan Hughes scored 10 points to tie for the team lead while recording eight rebounds and three assists. Hughes wrapped up a prolific career at Ursinus by finishing with 1,638 points to rank fourth all-time in program history. Freshman
Nick Nocito matched Hughes with 10 points, which all came in the first half, while sophomores
Cole Grubbs and
Marlin Wise each posted eight points.
Ursinus scored the first points of the game and Hughes put them ahead once more with a three-pointer at 5-4 with 16:12 remaining in the first half. However, the Mules ran off 10-straight points to go up 14-5 at the 11:45-mark as they took advantage of a 4:46 scoreless stretch by the Bears. Nocito ended the Mules run with back-to-back three-pointers to pull the Bears within three points at 14-11 before Giovanni Rubino, the leading scorer in the Centennial, scored seven-straight points to put the Mules back up 21-11. Ursinus used an 11-4 run to pull within three points once again at 25-22 with 3:12 remaining in the first half but were unable to get any closer as the Mules stretched their lead back out to 33-26 at halftime.
Grubbs scored the first four points of the second half for Ursinus which brought the score to 35-30 just 1:03 into the second half. Unfortunately for the Bears, the Mules got red hot from the field and went on a 23-6 run to go up 58-36 with 9:02 left in regulation. The run ultimately put the game away as the Bears got no closer than 18 points the rest of the way.
The Bears shot 33.9 percent (20-of-59) from the field and just 25 percent (5-of-20) from three-point range. Ursinus went 8-of-13 (61.5%) from the free throw line and got 26 points from its bench. Meanwhile, the Mules shot 45.8 percent (27-of-59) from the field behind going 55.6 percent in the second half. Muhlenberg went just 4-of-17 (23.5%) from deep and shot 69.6 percent (16-of-23) from the free throw line. The Mules held a slight 39-36 edge in rebounds and scored 21 points off 17 Bears turnovers.
Rubino registered a game-high 35 points behind going 12-of-18 from the field, 2-of-4 from beyond the arc, and a near perfect 9-of-10 from the free throw line.
