Knox Team-Bests of 18 Points, Seven Rebounds and Four Assists For WC

COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – Ursinus' Malik Draper scored a game-best 22 points and hauled down a contest-best 14 rebounds as the host Bears downed visiting Washington College, 83-68, at Helfferich Hall in a Centennial Conference men's basketball game on Tuesday evening.  The Bears, who never trailed in the game, improve to 5-9 overall and 2-5 in the Centennial, while the Shoremen fall to 1-13 and 1-6 respectively.

The Bears raced out to an 8-2 lead in the first 2:59 of the game with the game-opening run capped on a Joseph LoStracco lay-in.  After the Shoremen scored five of the next seven points to cut the lead to 10-7 with 15:58 remaining in the first half on a layup by sophomore guard James Drury (Jenkintown, Pa./Germantown Academy), Ursinus scored the next seven points to take a 17-7 lead on a Patrick Mekongo layup.  Washington would counter with nine of the next 11 points to trim the hosts' lead to 19-16 with 11:02 to go in the half on a Drury layup.  Ursinus led 28-23 with 5:43 remaining in the half before going on a 14-5 run to take its largest lead of the half, 14 points, at 42-28 lead with 1:40 left in the half on a LoStracco lay-in.  The Shoremen would respond with a 7-0 half-closing run to trim the Bears lead to 42-35 at halftime.  A fast-break layup by senior guard Sean Brooks (North Wales, Pa./North Penn) capped the first half scoring with 28 ticks left.  The Bears shot 57% from the floor in the opening 20 minutes, going 17-for-30.

In the second half, after scoring the opening basket to push their run to 10-0 on a Brooks three-pointer, the Bears went on an 8-0 run to take a 50-38 lead with 17:32 remaining on a LoStracco layup.  The run was ignited by a pair of triples by Matt Knowles.  The Shoremen would respond to cut the lead to seven at 55-48 with 12:17 remaining on a lay-in by freshman guard Joey Shelton (Garnet Valley, Pa./Church Farm School) before the Bears scored six unanswered points to take a 13-point lead at 61-48 with 10:34 left on a Draper free throw.  The Bears would eventually push their lead to 15 points at 67-52 with 8:47 to go on a Draper lay-in.  Washington would respond with an 11-4 run to cut the Bears lead to 71-63 with 4:27 left on a layup by junior forward Dave Knox (Warrington, Pa./Central Bucks South).  But the guests could draw no closer as the Bears would extend their lead to as many as 16 points at 79-63 with 1:44 left on a Knowles free throw.

In addition to Draper's double-double, Knowles scored 19 points, while LoStracco netted 16 points for Ursinus.  Brian Rafferty handed out nine assists to lead all players.  The Bears shot 56% from the floor (32-for-57), 31% from behind the arc (4-for-13) and 48% from the foul line (15-for-31).  The Bears held a 50-34 edge on the boards and had a 52-32 advantage in points in the paint. 

Knox led Washington with 18 points, seven rebounds and tied his career-high in assists with four.  Senior forward Sean Flanigan (Wilmington, Del./St. Mark's) had 10 points for the guests.  Washington shot 35% from the floor (28-for-74), 21% from three-point territory (6-for-28) and 63% from the charity stripe (10-for-16).  The Shoremen outscored the Bears 19-12 in points off of turnovers as the Bears turned it over 18 times to just 14 for the Shoremen.

The Shoremen are back in action on Saturday afternoon with a 4:00 p.m. Centennial Conference game versus visiting Muhlenberg with the alumni game to follow.