Photo Courtesy of Susquehanna Athletics
By Marquis Frias, Sports Editor
Susquehanna increased their current win streak to three games after a close 82-72 win over Moravian Saturday night. The win puts the River Hawks at 5-2 on the year, with a 3-1 record in conference play in a deep Landmark Conference.
Fans at O.W. Houts Gymnasium saw a tight battle to begin the first half, with Susquehanna clinging on to a 24-19 point lead.
That’s when the River Hawks were able to close out the first half on a 20-9 run in the final seven minutes. The River Hawks shot 56% from the field while holding the Greyhounds (4-3 overall, 2-2 conference) to shooting 35% from the field and only 7% from three.
The River Hawks came out of the locker rooms with a 16-point lead and were able to maintain it throughout the second half.
SU saw their lead go up by as much as 22 points over the next several minutes. Steady offensive play from the River Hawks while continuing to force Moravian to shoot poorly from the field fired the run as Susquehanna led 60-39 with 13 minutes left.
The Greyhounds would then follow with a run of their own, scoring 13 unanswered points to cut the River Hawks lead to 60-52.
However, the River Hawks would maintain this lead, continuing to hit bucket after bucket while forcing Moravian to foul on defense, leading to foul shots.
The River Hawks shot 66% from the line in the second half, and it helped come in handy to hold off the Greyhounds for the rest of the half.
The win didn’t come easy, as the River Hawks were matched against the conference’s leading scorer in Marquis Ratcliff.
However, the Susquehanna bigs were well prepared for Ratcliff as he was only held to eight points for the entire game, following the team’s shooting woes.
“We knew going into the game we knew we had to get stops on defense,” Senior Brandon Lavitt said. “We have good experience against [Ratcliff] and we just executed our gameplan well.”
Ratcliff, who entered the game averaging 26 points for the Greyhounds, fouled out of the game in the second half with two minutes left, while also receiving a technical foul as he made his exit.
Mario Castro Sanchez led the River Hawks in scoring with 19 points, marking this the second game in a row following his 25–point performance against Wilkes.
Senior Audric Washington put up a season-high 14 points as well, while fellow Senior Lavitt also scored 12 points and grabbed 5 rebounds for the River Hawks.
The River Hawks will carry their three–game win streak to San Juan, Puerto Rico for the Puerto Rico Clasico. They will take on No. 7 ranked University of Chicago on Thursday, Dec. 17 and finish with a game against Johns Hopkins on Sunday, Dec. 20.