MADISON, N.J. (Jan. 28, 2015) – Despite a resurgent second half, the Drew University men's basketball team dropped a Landmark Conference contest by a score of 79-69 to a University of Scranton team that withstood the attempted comeback.
Junior forward
Jason Huelbig and junior guards
Mike Klinger and
Kevin Herring II all shot at a 50-percent clip from the field as they registered 14, 20, and 13 points, respectively. Junior forward
Ozan Yucetepe swiped three steals and put up eight points in his team-high 35 minutes of action.
The Royals (14-4, 8-1) gave the Rangers (10-9, 5-5) all they could handle early on when they found success on eight consecutive field goal attempts before missing to start the game. Drew, however only trailed 19-14 once they broke that streak with 13:45 left in the first half.
The Royals' merciless outside shooting would soon extend that gap to 27-18 with 10:59 left. The shots contributed to a 75-percent three-point field goal percentage in the first half.
With Klinger and Herring leading the way in shooting, Scranton tore down the majority of the rebounds collecting 19, six of which were offensive, to Drew's nine. The rebound deficit would stand true to the second half but not without a resurgent push by the Rangers.
Drew's second half effort took shots at Scranton's lead, throwing together two separate 4-0 runs. Their aggressive pushes to the net forced fouls from the Royals. The Rangers hit 17 foul shots compared to four in the previous half.
Drew ripped into a 7-0 run with 4:38 to play in the contest to set the score at 66-55, which was capitalized by a Herring three from the top of the arc that reinvigorated the Baldwin Gym crowd and the Rangers' scoring effort.
Their tenacity remained until the final buzzer as they reluctantly ceased, intentionally fouling into the final minute of play.
The Rangers will look to shoot back above a .500 winning percentage in the Landmark Conference when they travel to Huntingdon, Pennsylvania to square off against Juniata College on Saturday, Jan 31 at 4:00 p.m.
