Devils Come Up Short Against Rams

Will Kernan scored 13 of his team high 23 points in the final 66 seconds but the comeback rally by the University of the Sciences men's basketball team fell short as Philadelphia university held on to defeat the Devils 75-72 at the Gallagher Center in Roxborough Tuesday night. 

The loss drops the Devils record to 10-10 overall and 6-8 in Central Atlantic collegiate conference games   The Rams improve to 14-9 overall and 9-5 in league contests.  The Devils still remain a game ahead of Wilmington University for the fourth and final playoff spot in the CACC Southern Division. 

Kernan's (The Larenceville School/Medford, N.J.) 23 points is a new career high, bettering his previous best of 21 which he did three times as a freshman last season.  Joining Kernan in double figures wasMyer Messinger (Dallas Area HS/Trucksville, Pa.) and Adewale Adefemi (Winslow Township HS/Chesilhurst, N.J.).   Messinger scored 16 points and grabbed eight rebounds while Adefemi added 13 points and a game-high nine boards.  Tyrone Mann-Barnes (Collingswood, HS/Woodlynne, N.J.) and Patrick Connaghan (Chestnut Hill Academy/Warrington, Pa.) added nine points apiece. 

Chris Kuntz came off the bench to score 24 points to lead the Rams.  Jimmy Connolly added 18 while Corey Francisco and Ola Sasona added 11 and 10 respectively.  Connolly also paced the Rams with eight rebounds.   Nick Christian dished out eight assists to lead all players. 

A defensive first half turned into a shooting contest in the second with both teams getting hot from the field and spending a good deal of time on the free throw line.  Trailing by four at the break, the Devils opened the second half with an 11-6 run to take a brief 32-31 lead.  Nine straight points by the Rams erased the advantage and put the game in control of the hosts.  The Rams eventually built the lead to 13 and led by 12 on a Temi Adebayo basket with 2:22 left before the Devils staged their nearly successful comeback.  Layups from Messinger and Connaghan cut the lead to eight 62-54 with 1:25 left.  A free throw by Adebayo was followed by the first of Kernan's 13 end-of-game points in the form of two free throws closing the gap to seven.   PU made six consecutive free throws while the Devils sandwiched a Messinger '3-ball' in between, which kept the lead at nine with 40.4 seconds left.  A triple from Kernan cut the lead to six with 36.6 seconds left.  Kuntz made one of two free throws and Kernan added another layup to cut the lead to five with 17 seconds left.  Kuntz again made one of two free throws to boost the lead back to six 73-67.   Kernan was fouled attempting a three-pointer and sank all three shots with 5.7 seconds left to make the score 73-70.  Connolly added two free throws with 4.7 seconds left and Omari Phillip (Germantown Friends School/Elkins Park, Pa.) scored on a basket with just under two seconds left to end the scoring  but it left the Devils on the short end of a 75-72 score. 

The Devils had a slight advantage shooting overall (47.1% to 46.9%) but were outscored 27-9 from three-point range.  Both teams were not impressive on the free throw line with the Rams having a slightly better percentage 66.7% to 65.6%.  The Devils did outrebound their host but produced an inefficient 5/12 assist turnover ratio to PU's 12/9. 

The men's basketball team returns to action on Thursday, February 17, 2011 when they host Washington Adventist University in a non-conference contest.   Tipoff is set for 8:00 p.m.