It may appear to the naked eye the Pitt-Bradford Panthers merely
pushed the Staples Easy Button in an 80-70 non-conference men’s
basketball win over Elmira College at the Sport & Fitness
Center on Monday.
But that wasn’t the case as the Panthers had to weather four
Soaring Eagles’ comebacks to even their season record at 2-2 in
their home opener.
“We struggled in the second half,” said Andy Moore,
Pitt-Bradford head coach. “We had a 14-point lead in the second
half, and then we started to stand around offensively and
defensively we weren’t moving our feet. It looked like a lot of
games last year when we had decent leads and let the teams back in
the games.”
A huge statistic in the hosts’ victory was the 18-for-21 foul
shooting in the second half and 28-35 (86 percent) for the
game.
“We pride ourselves on our free throw shooting,” Moore boasted.
“We spend a lot of time on foul shooting in practice and it paid
off tonight. Our goal is to be in the top five in the country again
in free throw shooting.”
Elmira (1-3) took its only lead at 4-2 just 90 seconds into the
contest on a three-pointer by Joe Prunier and a free throw from
Matt Keating.
The Panthers then opened an 11-4 margin on a basket by Ryan
Race, two free throws apiece by Dan Thomas and Mark Austin, and a
trifecta from Cameron Hubbard at the 14:15 juncture.
“We made a few shots and we were moving better offensively,”
Moore recalled. “There was no real flow to the game and it was
ugly.”
Once again the resilient visitors pared their disparity to 14-13
with 10:36 left in the half, but Jon Hannon drilled a triple,
Thomas followed with two from the charity stripe, Austin added a
layup and Hannon finished what he started as his second bomb
finalized the 10-2 spurt for a 24-15 Pitt-Bradford lead with 8:23
showing.
The Panthers led by 11 on three occasions and then widened the
discrepancy to 37-25 on a bucket by Hannon with 2:16 remaining, but
Elmira finished off the first 20 minutes with a jumper by Jason
Brown and a three-pointer by Prunier to trail 37-30 at the
intermission.
After the break Pitt-Bradford enjoyed its largest margin of the
evening when a triple by Shawn Spindler mushroomed the lead to
44-30 with 17:51 left.
The Panthers then missed four straight shots and committed a
turnover as the Soaring Eagles began to swoop down for road kill as
13 consecutive points made it interesting at 44-43 with 14:09
remaining.
“We stopped playing,” Moore confessed. “They (Soaring Eagles)
are a young team, but they start making shots and their confidence
grows. They don’t know any better that you’re not supposed to win
on the road.”
Pitt-Bradford freshman Aaron Stang then scored five points on an
old-fashioned three-point play and a layup, Austin canned another
layin, Thomas chipped in two more free throws and the lead was back
in double figures at 53-43 with 11:40 showing.
There wasn’t much time to celebrate as the Soaring Eagles cut
the deficit to 53-52 and then later tied the contest at 58-58 and
60-60 with 6:46 left.
Elmira couldn’t get over the hump as Stang sunk a pair of foul
shots and Race rimmed in a 10-footer. Thomas then stole the rock
and jettisoned past everybody in purple and yellow for a 66-60
advantage with 5:07 remaining.
“They (Soaring Eagles) never took the lead,” Moore declared.
“Thomas and Race are playing with a lot of determination. They want
to go out as winners and that’s great to see from your
seniors.”
A layup by Bryan Matthews whittled the disparity to 66-63 with
4:38 on the clock, but that’s as close as Elmira could get as
Pitt-Bradford was 8-for-9 from the line down the stretch.
Thomas led all scorers with 20 points on 13-for-15 from the
line, and had five assists and four steals. Stang had 13 points on
7-for-8 from the stripe, Race added a dozen points and Spindler
contributed 11 points for the Panthers. Prunier and Jon Adamson had
18 points apiece, and Matt Keating hauled in 12 rebounds and had
four assists for the Soaring Eagles.
The Panthers commence Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference
play Wednesday (8 p.m.) when they host a much-improved Medaille
College team (2-1). The Mavericks are now coached by former
Canisius College head coach Mike MacDonald, who spent nine years
(108-153) at the helm of the Division I program.
“They (Mavericks) are much, much better,” Moore admitted. “They
have a new coach and a lot of their guys back, including the
(James) McNeil kid (22.7 points per game). We will have our hands
full.”
