Greyhounds Pull Away Late, Edge Eagles

Bethlehem, Pa.- The Juniata men's basketball team suffered a tough 96-84 loss at Moravian, Saturday afternoon at Johnston Hall.

Marcus Lee (Carrolltown, Pa./Bishop Carroll) had 22 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks. Brandon Martinazzi (Cresson, Pa./Bishop Carroll) tallied 20 points, four assists and two steals. Damon Rickens (Altoona, Pa./Bishop Guilfoyle) totaled 14 points, four rebounds and three assists while Seth Brewer (Lancaster, Pa./Manheim Township) had 10 points, four rebounds and four assists. Paul Martello (York, Pa./York Catholic) added nine points and four assists off the bench. 

Rickens drilled a three off a pass from Lee to open the scoring. Three minutes later, two free throws from Lee put JC up 10-5. The Greyhounds pulled within one at 12-11, but JC countered with a 9-0 run. Lee scored inside off a feed from Martinazzi, Wil Peralta (Hagerstown, Md./North Hagerstown) scored off a pass from Brewer, Noah Neville (Westminster, Md./North Carroll) found Martello for an easy lay-in, Marcus Hall (York, Pa./Trinity) scored inside off a pass from Martello and finally Martello scored inside again to cap the run.

Moravian came right back over the next three minutes, and with just eight and half minutes left a three pulled the Greyhounds back within three at 27-24. Peralta split a pair of free throws, Lee converted inside and Brewer made a jumper to give JC some breathing room at 32-24.

With a just over two minutes to go, Moravian got back within one on a layup and tied the game on a foul shot. Peralta scored inside and the Greyhounds sunk a foul shot in the final seconds as JC went into the half up 38-37.

The teams traded the lead four times in the opening two minutes, with the Greyhounds taking the lead for good off two free throws at 43-42. The Eagles kept the deficit within single digits over the next nine minutes, but the Greyhounds slowly expanded their lead, and a layup made it 67-57 with 11 minutes to go.

A Rickens three sliced the deficit to six at 78-72, and the Eagles got within six two more times, but couldn't get any closer the rest of the way. 

The Eagles shot 56.9% from the floor while Moravian shot 54.2%. The Greyhounds held the edge from behind the line, shooting 54.2% (13-25) while Juniata was an efficient 44.4% (4-9). 

Juniata travels to Goucher for the penultimate game of the regular season, Wednesday. Tipoff is at 7:00.