A sluggish start by the Rangers and some torrid shooting by the Greyhounds doomed Drew men's basketball to a 79-49 loss against Moravian in Baldwin Gym on Saturday afternoon. The Rangers, playing a day game after a tough night game, struggled to find their rhythm while the Greyhounds were busy having one of their best shooting nights of the season. Moravian's Chris Cullen led all players with 21 points and 13 rebounds while Terrell Brown paced the Rangers with 12 and seven. In an interesting coincidence, Moravian's Head Coach Jim Walker collected his 400th career win with today's victory at Drew where he began his coaching career 31 years ago. Drew (2-9, 0-3 Landmark) doesn't have long to dwell on the loss as it will be back in action on Monday at TCNJ for a rescheduled contest at 7 pm.
A disastrous start by the Rangers left Drew trailing by 11 after just six minutes of play, 16-5. Eric Weaver had seven early points and later knocked down a three that put the Greyhounds up by 17 with nine minutes to play, 26-9. The Moravian lead would grow to as many as 27 before the end of the half and finish at 44-18.
In the second half, Drew was unable to close the lead, but did play the Greyhounds much tougher, 35-31, in the period. After Moravian built an advantage as large as 34, Drew chipped away to bring it back down to 23, 70-47, on Pat Dorsey's steal and breakaway layup with 3:05 left, but could get no closer.
The Rangers got plenty of strong minutes from some of their younger players as Head Coach Darryl Keckler used the time to get his reserves some needed in-conference experience. Evan Elberg came off the bench to provide some good energy and score five points. Luke Mullaney showed some toughness on the defense end by recording a steal and a blocked shot while also scoring three points and grabbing three rebounds. Memhet Onen had four points off the bench.
The Rangers, who had eight sophomores or freshmen see time in the game, seemed to be feeling the effects of the first Landmark doubleheader weekend more than the senior and junior laden Greyhounds. The Rangers engaged in a battle of attrition with a physical Scranton Royal team less than 20 hours earlier while Moravian were out of their game with USMMA early in the second half last night. Add in that Moravian shot 50.9% from the field, almost exclusive on jump shots (they had just 28 points in the paint), the Rangers were facing a difficult task from the start. For a team that features so many underclassmen, every game is a learning experience and today's disappointing result is no different.
Brown had 12 and seven rebounds and Mike Mayes added 10 points. Lucas Levenson tied Brown for the team high with seven boards. Drew shot 31% from the field and hit just 2-16 three point attempts.
The Rangers get back into action on Monday at TCNJ at 7 pm.
Newspaper Box Score
MORM vs Drew Rangers
1/9/2010 4:00 pm at Baldwin Gym, Madison, NJ
At Baldwin Gym, Madison, NJ
MORM 79, DREW RANGERS 49
MORM (4-9, 1-2)
Chris Cullen 8-14 2-2 21; Eric Weaver 7-13 3-5 18; Mike Zubia 2-4 4-4 9;
Nnamdi Njoku 3-4 1-2 8; Mark Koelbel 1-2 5-6 7; Shane Painter 3-5 0-1 6;
Blake English 2-4 2-2 6; Ryan O'Donnell 1-3 0-0 3; Don Rauchut 0-1 1-2 1;
Jeff Cullinan 0-2 0-0 0; Mike Weinert 0-0 0-0 0; Aaron Thieme 0-0 0-0 0;
Ryan Straub 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 27-53 18-24 79.
DREW RANGERS (2-9, 0-3)
Terrell Brown 5-9 2-5 12; Mike Mayes 4-9 2-3 10; Evan Elberg 2-4 0-1 5; Joe
Horvath 1-4 2-2 4; Mehmet Onen 1-3 2-2 4; Lucas Levenson 1-2 1-2 3; Luke
Mullaney 1-5 0-0 3; Anthony Solano 1-4 0-0 2; Travis DeNapoli 1-2 0-1 2; Pat
Dorsey 1-7 0-0 2; McNeil Wrice 0-4 2-4 2; Kyle Joyce 0-3 0-0 0; Nick
Ganzfried 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 18-58 11-20 49.
MORM.......................... 44 35 - 79
Drew Rangers.................. 18 31 - 49
3-point goals--MORM 7-18 (Chris Cullen 3-6; Mike Zubia 1-3; Ryan O'Donnell
1-1; Eric Weaver 1-2; Nnamdi Njoku 1-2; Jeff Cullinan 0-2; Ryan Straub 0-1;
Shane Painter 0-1), Drew Rangers 2-16 (Evan Elberg 1-1; Luke Mullaney 1-4;
Joe Horvath 0-1; Anthony Solano 0-3; Pat Dorsey 0-3; Kyle Joyce 0-2; Nick
Ganzfried 0-2). Fouled out--MORM-None, Drew Rangers-None. Rebounds--MORM 40
(Chris Cullen 13), Drew Rangers 27 (Terrell Brown 7; Lucas Levenson 7).
Assists--MORM 14 (Ryan O'Donnell 5), Drew Rangers 6 (Terrell Brown 3). Total
fouls--MORM 18, Drew Rangers 20. Technical fouls--MORM-None, Drew
Rangers-None. A-144
Moravian's Jim Walker wins 400th game of his career.
