First Half Send Rangers Easy Sailing in Second

MADISON, NJ.- The Juniata men's basketball team lost on the road after a strong first half from the Rangers ending the score at 79-53 at Baldwin Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon. 

The Rangers opened the game up with the first points. With a feed from Kohl Bernarding (Cochranton, Pa. / Cochranton HS), Nick Rigby (Huntingdon, Pa. / Huntingdon HS) drove into the net, took a hard step back, and drained a basket for the Eagle's first points of the game. Rigby then went on to score the next three baskets for Juniata with three layups. Jordan Trusty-Smith (Upper Malboro, Md. / Annapolis Area Christian School), Michael Montecalvo (Altoona, Pa. / Bishop Guilfoyle HS), and Jamel Foster (York, Pa. / Red Lion Area Senior HS) attempted to close the gap for the Eagles by each having points scored in the final minutes of the first half.

Drew stacked on fourteen more points at the beginning of the second half before being broken up by a Montecalvo layup to put the Eagles at 18. The Eagle's offense wasn't able to score for the next six minutes of the game while Drew pushed their lead to 52-18. 

Chase Husted (DuBois, Pa. / DuBois Area HS) passed to Kyle Ruggery (Duncansville, PA / Bishop Guilfoyle HS) on the outside of the three-point line and cut into the paint, receiving the ball back and fighting in the paint to put up two. Gabe Guidinger (York, Pa. / Central York HS) added three points with an assist from Tyler Lapetina (Collegeville, Pa. / Perkiomen Valley HS) from the far side of the court. Lapetina then went back-to-back made shots pushing the Egale's up to 25 points on the scoreboard. Ross Conway (Lancaster, Pa. / Lancaster Catholic HS) entered the game and put up five points in under a minute. 

The Eagle's hard fight was not enough in the end. Guidinger led the Eagles with 14 points and three assists while Conway put up seven and one assist and Rigby totaled six points. 

Juniata will play Goucher on the road on Monday the 24th at 7:00 pm.