ALLENTOWN, Pa. – The Ursinus Men's Basketball team continued its strong stretch of play with a decisive 80-67 win at Muhlenberg on Wednesday night in Centennial Conference action.
With the win, the Bears improved to 13-11 overall and 9-8 in Centennial Conference action while locking up the fifth seed in next week's Centennial Conference Tournament. Ursinus will play on the road against an opponent to be determined next Tuesday, February 20th. Meanwhile, the Mules fell to 8-16 overall and 7-10 in conference play.
Four Bears finished in double-figures as senior
Trevor Wall led the team with 20 points while adding four rebounds, two assists, plus two steals. Sophomore
Nick Nocito recorded 18 points behind going 4-of-8 from the field and 9-of-10 from the free throw line. Nocito snatched seven rebounds and dished out a game-high four assists. Junior
Marlin Wise tallied 13 points behind going 5-of-7 from the field and grabbed seven rebounds while first-year
Luke Nieman added 12 points.
The teams traded baskets in the first four minutes of the game before the Bears stormed ahead with nine straight points to go up 13-6. Muhlenberg drew back in on the Bears and tied the game at 17 with 11:10 left in the first half following back-to-back baskets. However, Ursinus did not relinquish the lead and ran off eight straight points to go up 25-17 at the 8:16-mark. The Bears answered a short Mules burst that made it a 27-24 game with a 9-2 run to go up 36-26 at the 3:19-mark. Ursinus used timely baskets to maintain a 39-32 lead entering halftime.
Ursinus came out red hot to start the second half as they used a 10-2 run in the opening three minutes to go up 49-34. Muhlenberg got six straight points to cut the deficit down to 49-40 only to be countered by six straight points by the Bears that made it 55-40 at the 15:40-mark. Ursinus continued to roll in the second half as they extended their lead out to 20 points at 65-45 at the 10:12-mark behind a 10-5 burst. Muhlenberg would get no closer than 12 points the rest of the way as the Bears wrapped up their fourth win in last five games.
The Bears shot 45.6 percent (26-of-57) from the field behind shooting an even 50 percent in the second half. Ursinus went just 23.8 percent (5-of-21) from three-point range and an efficient 23-of-28 (82.1%) from the free throw line. Ursinus held a 36-28 edge in rebounds in the win as well. Meanwhile the Mules shot 42.3 percent (22-of-52) from the field and just 29.4 percent (5-of-17) from deep. Muhlenberg went 72 percent (18-of-25) from the free throw line and scored 22 points off Bear turnovers. Brandon Goldberg led all scorers on the floor with 22 points behind going 7-of-9 from the field and 8-of-10 from the free throw line.
Ursinus will wrap up the regular season on Saturday, February 17th as they will travel to face Dickinson at 4:00 p.m.
