By Nick Forbes, Managing Editor of Content
The Susquehanna men’s basketball team fell to Juniata 80–68 on Saturday, Feb. 16, securing the third seed in the 2019 Landmark Conference Championship Tournament.
The River Hawks came out of the locker room with the hot hand in this game, as they drained their first six three-point attempts.
Sophomore guard Matt La- Corte was a big part of this scoring output, as he shot 60 percent from beyond the arc against the Eagles.
In the rst seven minutes of the game, Susquehanna built up a 10-point lead, but an Eagles scoring run cut the de cit to just three before senior guard Tyler Hoagland turned on the offense.
Hoagland’s four-straight points with ve minutes remaining in the rst half put Susquehanna up seven, but three straight triples from Juniata tied the game at 31. Another quick basket put the Eagles up by two, but junior forward Zach Knecht buried a shot to tie the game at 33 entering the half.
In the second half, it was the Eagles to got out to the hot start; this time draining their rst seven shots of the half.
Susquehanna tried to make a comeback, but the Eagles shut that down as quickly as it started, as Juniata went on to score 20 of the next 26 points in the game.
LaCorte netted seven- straight points of his own to try and reenergize the River Hawk’s offense, but the double- digit de cit was too much for Susquehanna to overcome.
LaCorte finished the game as the team’s leading scorer with 20 points, and also hauled in five rebounds to round out his night.
Hoagland netted just six points, but added three assists and four rebounds in the losing effort. Freshman guard Lukas Yurasits scored 13 points, all of which came from beyond the arc, or the free throw line.
Sophomore guard Bryce Butler added 10 points and three rebounds to the final tally.
The River Hawks (16-9) will square off against Moravian (17-8) on Thursday, Feb. 21 in the Landmark Conference Tournament Semi final round.
