By Melissa Barracato Staff writer
The Susquehanna men’s basketball team moved into sole possession of first place in the Landmark Conference standings with an 85-74 win over Drew on Feb. 11.
The game was also Senior Day for the River Hawks, who have four seniors: guards Jason Dietrich, Dalton Reichard and Steven Weidlich and forward Danny Weiss, who were all recognized before the game.
The score went back and forth all throughout the first half, with the score tied at 39 at halftime. “We were pretty confident,” Head Coach Frank Marcinek said. “We talk about making winning basketball plays and we didn’t make a lot of those in the first half.”
The slow start continued early on in the second half for the River Hawks as the Rangers took a 12-point lead with 17 minutes left to play.
“We typically start second halves really well so I was confident we’d have a winning start, but we didn’t,” Marcinek said. “We gave up transition scores, fast break points, points off offensive rebounds and some of those things we had to tighten up on. Drew is a very good offensive team and we couldn’t give them too many opportunities. Giving them second chances was something we had to focus on not doing.”
Things started to turn around when Weidlich started a 15-3 run to get the River Hawks back in the game. Junior guard Adam Dizbon hit a 3-pointer to tie the game at 56 with a little less than 13 minutes remaining.
“We kept our poise and kept plugging away and over time I think that our depth and our experience really made the difference,” Marcinek said.
With less than six minutes to go, the game was tied once again at 70 until Susquehanna went on a 14-2 run led by junior center Ryan Traub, Dietrich, Reichard and Weidlich.
“The key to our runs was getting stops,” Marcinek said. “I thought our half-court execution when we needed a basket went really well and we got what we wanted.”
Weidlich led all scorers with 28 points, followed by Traub and Dizbon at 14 points apiece. Freshman guard Seth Callahan and Weiss added eight points each while freshman guard Zachary Knecht had seven, Dietrich contributed four and Reichard chipped in two to total Susquehanna’s 85 points.
Despite the recent success, the River Hawks took a tough loss on Feb. 15, falling to Scranton 75-66.
Scranton had already caused problems for Susquehanna, defeating the River Hawks 76- 68 on Jan. 11, but since then Susquehanna appeared to be a much improved team.
Despite getting out to an early 15-2 lead, the Royals exploded for 47 points in the second half and ate into the lead little-by-little, until eventually the game was tied at 58 with 5:35 left to play.
After trading buckets back and forth, Scranton went on a 7-0 run with 1:10 left in the game to give them the separation they needed to defeat the surging River Hawks.
Weidlich led the scoring with 18 points, and Traub accounted for a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
With one game remaining in the regular season, Susquehanna suddenly finds itself in a three-way tie for the No. 1 seed in the Landmark Conference with Scranton and Moravian, two teams that have given the River Hawks trouble this year.
The River Hawks wrap up the regular season against Elizabethtown on Feb. 18.
