Photo by Gabby Zulak Courtesy of Susquehanna Athletics
By Marquis Frias, Sports Editor
The Susquehanna Men’s Basketball team dropped their home opener Friday after a 78-69 loss to Kean University at O.W. Houts Gymnasium.
The game was the first round match of the annual Mike Scheib tipoff tournament, a tournament Susquehanna hosts every year, inviting three other teams to participate. Mike Scheib was a 1978 alumni who played point guard for the men’s basketball team from 1975-1978.
Scheib was described as a lightning quick point guard who could do it all on the floor and in his senior year, he was awarded the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award, an award that was given to the best collegiate basketball player under 6 feet tall.
After tipoff, both teams engaged in a back and forth battle in the first part of the first half. Kean jumped out to a 20-12 lead after eight minutes of play, highlighted by senior guard Adam Silas’ eight points.
Kean continued to hold on to their lead, deploying a press defense that flustered the River Hawks offensively. With the high game speed along with forced turnovers from the Cougars, Susquehanna wasn’t able to find a groove offensively.
“I thought in the first half we were poor against their press,” Susquehanna head coach Frank Marcinek said. “We wanted to attack the press, kick back, look middle, possibly skip a pass, but we didn’t. I thought the press got us out of whack in the 1st half.”
However in the final minutes of the first half, The River Hawks went on a 7-0 run to cut down the Kean lead 38-31 entering the locker room after consistently being down by double digits.
At the half, Silas led all scorers with 16 points, while Susquehanna freshman Logan Shaw put up nine points alongside redshirt sophomore Mikey Cumbo’s eight points in the first 20 minutes of play.
In the second half, Susquehanna came out swinging, immediately tying the game at 38 all after a Shaw layup capped a 7-0 run to start the half. However, Silas would answer back on his own with back to back three pointers, while also adding a four point play on the second three to erase the seven straight points from Susquehanna.
Kean then inflated their lead to 12 points only a couple of minutes later after a layup from sophomore forward Malachi Jeffers-Viera, giving the Cougars all the momentum in the second half.
With four minutes remaining and the score at 69-59, a layup from Susquehanna sophomore guard KJ Carson put the deficit at single digits, however the River Hawks couldn’t seem to strike at the right moment. Pesky defense from the Cougars along with more buckets from Silas and Jeffers-Viera helped Kean close out the win, spoiling the River Hawks’ opening night.
“I thought we relied on the three way too much,” Marcinek said. “We didn’t get short rolls. We didn’t get paint touches. Things like that we really wanted to get.”
Silas ended as the game’s leading scorer with his 28 points to go along with three rebounds and two assists, while Jeffers-Viera added in 20 points and eight rebounds. Meanwhile for Susquehanna, Shaw led the way with 13 points and five rebounds, alongside senior guard Seamus Rodgers who had 12 points and seven rebounds.
The River Hawks shot 38.5% from the field and 27.3% from three, a large discrepancy from their season opener against St. Francis. Susquehanna also outrebounded Kean 42 to 37, but the River Hawks’ 12 turnovers along with 24 team fouls helped give the advantage to the Cougars.
With the loss, Susquehanna drew SUNY Geneseo as their opponent in the consolation game of the Mike Scheib tipoff tournament. Geneseo was defeated by Wesleyan 67-64 in the game prior to the River Hawks and the Cougars.
“I think [SUNY Geneseo] is going to really bother us with pressure, but I think we’ll be solid in the half court this time,” Marcinek said.
The River Hawks look to get back on track when they take on SUNY Geneseo on Saturday, Nov 14 at 1 p.m.