COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Ursinus men's basketball team responded with a 90-85 win over Widener in non-conference action on Wednesday night at Helfferich Hall.
 
 
With the win, the Bears improved to 2-1 overall in the second week of the season. Meanwhile, the Pride, an NCAA Tournament team from a year ago dropped its first game of the season.
 
 
Junior Mohamed Toure had a career night for the Bears by pouring in a career-high 29 points behind going 11-of-18 from the field and 5-of-9 from three-point range. Toure completed a double-double with 12 rebounds as well. Senior Trevor Wall nearly matched Toure with 27 points on 10-of-18 shooting with five rebounds, three steals, and two assists. Junior Nick Nocito added 13 points and continued his torrid pace with eight assists and senior Cole Grubbs compiled 10 points, six points, plus five blocks.
 
 
Widener started fast out of the gates and took a 16-6 lead at the 13:50-mark of the first half behind taking advantage of six Bears turnovers, forcing a Bears timeout. Ursinus started to round into form and used a 15-3 run to take its first lead of the game at 21-19 following a three-pointer from sophomore Luke Nieman at the 8:37-mark. A three from Toure gave the Bears a 26-21 edge at the 7:13-mark but the Pride responded with a 10-2 run to go up 31-28 with 5:14 left in the first half. Widener held the lead for the remainder of the first half and went up by eight multiple times, with the latest being 48-40 with 1:03 left in the first half. However, the Bears scored four points in the final minute to make it 48-44 at the half following a fastbreak layup from Nocito just before the buzzer.
 
 
Ursinus scored the first points nearly two minutes into the second half and Toure tied the game at 54 with a three-pointer at the 16:01-mark. A dunk put Widener back in front at 56-54 before the Bears took the lead for the first time in the second half with four straight points at the 14:51-mark. Ursinus laid down a decisive run with the score knotted at 60 with eight straight points that led to a 13-2 run to give the Bears a 73-62 lead with 7:59 left in regulation. Toure gave Ursinus its largest lead of the game at 5:38 following a steal from first-year Jamie Murphy and the Bears led 81-68 at the 4:39-mark. The Bears maintained a healthy advantage down the stretch and went up 10 points at 87-77 with 31 seconds left after Nocito knocked down a pair of free throws. However, Widener put a slight scare into Ursinus with eight points in a 20 second span that made it a one possession game with five seconds left. Wall staved off the rally by making a pair of free throws to preserve the win.
 
 
The Bears shot 50.7 percent (34-of-67) from the field and just 27.3 percent (6-of-22) from three-point range. Ursinus went 16-of-22 (72.7%) from the free throw line and held a decisive 47-34 rebounding edge that led to a 12-3 second chance point edge. Meanwhile, the Pride shot 46.5 percent (33-of-71) from the field and 30.8 percent (8-of-26) from deep. Widener only went 11-of-21 (52.4%) from the free throw line and scored 32 points off 19 Ursinus turnovers.
 
 
Matt Daulerio led the Pride with a team-high 28 points behind going 10-of-17 from the field and 3-of-5 from three-point range while grabbing eight rebounds. Luke Mazur added 18 points, four rebounds, and three assists while Kevin Schenk scored 16 points and grabbed three rebounds.
 
 
Ursinus returns to action on Saturday, November 16th as they will travel to face Rosemont at 1:00 p.m.