Providence, RI - The Men's Basketball team headed to Providence tonight to take on the Johnson and Wales University Wildcats (4-6) riding a three-game winning streak. The Falcons took a one-point lead into halftime, but came up short in the second half falling to JWU, 64-62. The tough loss snapped the Falcons streak and the team will head to the Christmas break with an overall record of 7-9.
The Falcons continued to shoot well as a team tonight as they shot 47% from the floor. The Falcons bench also continued to play well as they outscored the Wildcats bench 33-15, the sixth game in a row in which the Falcons bench outscored their opponents. The difference in the very tight contest though, was key turnovers. The Wildcats forced 15 Falcons turnovers, turning those miscues into 21 points while only committing eight and only giving up seven points.
The Wildcats jumped out to an early lead in the first and did not relinquish that lead until late into the first half. JWU led by as many as eight points with 5:04 left on the clock in the first half, as the Wildcats were up 26-18. However the Falcons responded with a 15-6 run in the last five minutes to take a 33-32 lead into the locker room. The second half happened almost the same way as the Wildcats began to build another big lead over the Falcons, getting ahead by 52-41 with 11:41 remaining in the game forcing a Coach Blouin timeout. The Falcons came out of the timeout and responded with a spark with a 9-1 run, capped by a Chris Sorapuru (Temecula, CA) jump shot, to bring the visitors within two at 55-57 with 1:52 on the clock. JWU's Deji Johnson stopped the Falcons rally as he knocked down a shot behind the arc to put his squad back up by five. Kyle Snowden (Santa Cruz, CA) was able to get free under the basket for a lay-up with just seven seconds left to bring the score to 62-59, but JWU's Brian Hogan-Gary sunk his two free throws to help seal the 64-62 victory.
Ville Milan (Turku, Finland) led the way for the Falcons in the loss as he came off the bench and tallied 17 points and seven rebounds. Sorapuru contributed with his third double-double of the season as he had 10 points and 11 rebounds for his team. Hogan-Gary led all scorers in the victory as he earned a double-double with 19 points and 17 rebounds.
The Falcons will take the 7-9 record into the Christmas break as the Falcons do not play again until Monday January 7th when they take on Vermont Tech at Fecteau-Leary in Lynn, MA.