Stuebenville, OH - The Mount Aloysius Men's Basketball team fell on the road to Franciscan University on Wednesday evening. After a slow start offensively, the Mounties were unable to make up ground and lost the game 63-53.

The first half saw the Mounties struggle to score early as their first basket came 6 minutes into the game when Trent McErlane (Greenville, PA/Greenville) hit a three to put the Mounties down 6. Mount Aloysius continued to struggle after the three as it took another 5 minutes for the Mounties to score. The Mounties hit double digits with just over 4 minutes remaining when Imrane Amadou (Cotonou, Benin/Harcum Junior College) hit a jumper in the lane. Mount Aloysius picked up some scoring in the final four minutes as they were able to score 10 points in the span, with McErlane hitting a three at the buzzer to cut the deficit to 14 at halftime.

After the break, the Mounties continued to cut into the lead as they scored the first four buckets of the half. Tommy Pisula (Scottdale, PA/Southemoreland) made two layups inside and Imil Britt (Johnstown, PA/Greater Johnstown) made a jumper and a layup after a steal to put the Mounties down 6. Franciscan responded, as they quickly restored the double digit lead. The Barons slowly continued to build their lead throughout the half as they found themselves up 23 with 2 minutes to go. Julian Stover (Washington, DC/Richard Montgomery) had a strong finish to the game. In the final 2 minutes he scored 13 straight points to cut the lead to 14. Britt and Azim Hutson (Orlando, FL/Ocoee) each hit two free throws in the closing seconds to move the final deficit to 10 points.

Stover was the lead scorer for the Mounties. He finished with 21 points while shooting 50% from the field and the same percentage from three. Pisula led the way on the glass, grabbing 12 rebounds in the contest, including 5 on the offensive end. 

The Mounties record is now 11-9 with an 8-5 record in AMCC play. The Mounties are in 4th place in the conference and will travel to Buffalo over the weekend. They will play D'Youville with the game beginning at 3:00 PM. In their first meeting this year, the Mounties were able to hold off a late Spartan run to win by 3.