Husted Leads Eagles Past Greyhounds on Senior Day

HUNTINGDON, Pa.- The Juniata men's basketball team closed the regular season in style as they celebrated their seniors with a 77-64 victory over visiting Moravian University on Saturday afternoon inside Memorial Gymnasium. 

The Greyhounds came out on fire over the first 11 minutes of the game as they splashed seven threes and added an and-one for good measure as Juniata trailed 26-20 with nine minutes to go in the first half. 

Juniata got threes from Michael Montecalvo and Neco Campbell, several layups from Chase Husted, and a smooth step-through layup by Mason Hardy. Tyler Lapetina had an absurd layup in transition, getting the ball from Hardy on the right side, driving to the rim, elevating between two defenders, switching to his left hand, and lofting the ball off the glass. 

With under three minutes to go in the half, Gabe Guidinger curled off a pick and drilled a jumper off an inbounds pass from Ty Kocak along the baseline to tie things at 31-31. Kocak was fouled on the next two Eagle offensive possessions and made all four of his foul shots.  

Husted closed the half with an and-one as he got the ball on the right block, spun past his man, and laid it in through contact. His fouled shot sent the Eagles into the locker room up by seven, 41-34.  

The Greyhounds shot 52.9% from three in the first half and made nine three-pointers. Husted dominated inside for the Eagles as he had 15 points on 6-7 shooting in the first half. 

Juniata opened the second half on a 17-9 run to push their lead to 15 on a pair of Kocak foul shots. 

JC would ramp up the defense from there, holding the visitors scoreless for nearly four minutes before Moravian made two foul shots, which brought the lead back to 19 for a moment. On the other end, Lapetina got the ball at the foul line and slid a bounce pass to Husted, who laid it in to push the lead back to 21.

Juniata cruised the rest of the way, with a Jack Edwards three off a pass from Benjamin Landesman providing the game's final points for the Eagles. 

Making their fourth consecutive appearance in the Landmark postseason, Juniata will travel to take on #4 seed Wilkes University in the first round Tuesday at 7:00.