CHESTERTOWN, Md. – The Ursinus Men's Basketball team secured a home first round Centennial Conference Tournament game with a resounding 83-47 win over Washington College on Saturday afternoon in their regular season finale.
With the win, the Bears wrapped up the regular season with a 16-9 overall record and 9-4 mark in Centennial Conference play to earn the fourth seed in next week's Centennial Conference Tournament. It will be the Bears first home Centennial Conference Tournament game since the 2017-18 season when they hosted Dickinson in the first round. Meanwhile, the Shoremen concluded their season with an 8-17 overall record and 3-10 mark in Centennial Conference play.
Junior
Mohamed Toure led the Bears with a game-high 19 points and grabbed eight rebounds while dishing out two assists. Senior
Trevor Wall posted 16 points on 7-of-14 shooting from the field while totaling five rebounds and five steals apiece. Sophomore
Matthew Field registered a career-high 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field and grabbed eight rebounds. First-year
Jamie Murphy hauled in a game-high 10 rebounds and scored eight points.
The Shoremen scored the first four points of the game before the Bears stormed ahead with 14 unanswered to go up 14-4 at the 12:51-mark of the first quarter. Washington College used a 9-2 run to pull within three points at 16-13 with 9:51 left in the first half, but the Bears subdued the burst with a 10-4 run to go up 26-17 at the 6:35-mark. Ursinus held the Shoremen without a point for the final 5:29 of the first half and scored nine straight points to take a 35-19 advantage going into halftime.
Ursinus hit the gas pedal to open the second half by scoring the first eight points to take a 43-19 advantage at the 17:37-mark. The Shoremen broke a scoreless stretch of 8:24 that went back into the first half at the 17:05-mark, but the Bears continued to roll as they stretched their lead out to 55-29 with 12:22 left in regulation. Ursinus did not let its lead fall below 20 points the rest of the way and not below 30 for the last 7:02 of the contest. The Bears extended its lead to as many as 40 points with just over a minute left in the game.
The Bears shot 47 percent (31-of-66) from the field behind shooting 56.7 percent in the second half and just 29.2 (7-of-24) percent from three-point range. Ursinus went a solid 82.4 percent (14-of-17) from the free throw line and held a whopping 51-25 advantage in rebounds which led to a 22-3 edge in second chance points. Meanwhile, the Shoremen shot 32.1 percent (18-of-56) from the field, 30.8 percent (4-of-13) from three-point range, and 77.9 percent (7-of-9) from the free throw line.
The Bears will open Centennial Conference Tournament play on Tuesday, February 26th as they will host fifth-seeded Swarthmore at a time to be determined. Stay tuned to www.ursinusathletics.com for the official game time, preview, and link to buy tickets.
