DUNMORE, Pa. – The Rosemont men's basketball team won their third straight conference game as they finished tonight's contest with a 79-69 decision over the host Marywood University Pacers. The Ravens moved to over "500" in the conference as they improved to 5-7 overall and 3-2 in the CSAC. Marywood fell to 7-4 (2-2 CSAC) and snapped their two-game winning streak with the result.
The game featured many long runs and momentum changes, but the Ravens won the last momentum change and held on at the charity stripe at the business end of the game.
The Pacers came out of the gate with an 18-8 advantage midway through the first half. With the Ravens trailing by 10 points with 7:39 left in the first, Rosemont ran out to a 22-10 streak to end the half with a 33-31 lead.
The Ravens were all business to start the second half, opening up with a 9-2 spurt to take a 42-33 lead with 14:47 left. The next run was Marywood's, outscoring the Ravens 16-6 to grab back the lead at 49-48 with 9:19 left. The Pacer's last run was their best chance at trying to get the win, but the Ravens bounced back immediately to get back ahead on a layup by Nadir Sukes to put Rosemont back ahead 50-49 with 8:43 left. The Ravens would not trail after that point.
A big trey from Dyshon Pack on an assist from Clayton Wolfe gave the Ravens some breathing room and a Clayton Wolfe layup ended a 10-0 run to give the Ravens a 58-49 lead with 6:04 left. The Pacers would sneak back to within six points down the stretch but Rosemont repelled the attempt to hold on for the win. Free throws were the key for the Ravens down the stretch as the Ravens made 12 straight free throws near the end of the contest to ice the game. Marcus Thomas went 8-for-8 from the foul line in the waning moments of the game.
Thomas led the Ravens, scoring 26 points tonight, shooting 7-for 12 from the field (4-for-7 from downtown) and 8-for-8 at the line. Dom Scafidi led the rest of the Ravens in scoring with 13 points. Clayton Wolfe (11) and Nadir Stukes (10) completed the foursome of Ravens who scored in double-figures tonight. Scafidi led the Ravens in the paint with five rebounds.
For Marywood, Shane Kallaher (16), Cameron Dean (12) and Connor Callejas (10) reached double-digits. Dean and Jonathan Valazquez each grabbed seven caroms to lead the Pacers.
Although Rosemont was out-rebounded 34-25, they made up for that deficit by shooting 51% from the field, 40% from three-point land, and 93.8% from the charity stripe.
The Ravens hope to keep their conference winning streak alive when they host the Keystone Giants on Saturday in the second half of a doubleheader. The men's game is scheduled to start at 3:00pm.
