Bloomsburg Rally Falls Short in Men's Basketball

BLOOMSBURG—Bloomsburg University's rally from a 20-point second half deficit fell short as the Huskies lost to Edinboro University, 92-87, Monday night at the Nelson Field House.

The teams were tied at 40-all to start the second half when Edinboro went on 16-0 run to grab a 56-40 lead just 2 ˝ minutes into the period. Dan Grabill opened the half with a three, followed by back to back three-pointers from Torry Mitchell to make it a 49-40 lead for the Fightin Scots. After a Bloomsburg miss, Jakim Donaldson hit a layup followed by another layup and a free throw from Grabill after a Bloomsburg turnover. Donaldson ended the run for Edinboro with layup with 17:22 to play in the game.

Bloomsburg's John Owens (Philadelphia/Abington Friends) broke the run with a layup before another 6-0 run put Edinboro in front by a margin of 62-42 with 16:11 left.

The Huskies then rallied and trimmed the margin back to 12 points at the 13:10 mark when Ryan Nenstiel (Nuremburg/Weatherly) drained a three-pointer making it 67-56. Edinboro, though, pushed the lead back to 18 at 76-58 with 10:10 left to play on a dunk by Donaldson.

But Owens and the rest of the Huskies would come back once more.

With the Huskies trailing 85-68 with 3:40 left in the game, Owens hit two free throws and a dunk to make it 85-72 with 3:13 left. Billy Bryan (Denver/Holy Name) then knifed inside for a layup to make it 87-74. After Edinboro's Daren Tielsch got inside for a layup, Owens hit four straight followed by a jumper from Andrew Jerry (Philadelphia/Olney) to cut the margin to 87-80 with 1:50 left.

After an Edinboro miss, Owens was fouled with 1:11 left and hit both shots to get within five at 87-82. Donaldson then hit one of two free throws and Mitchell hit a jumper after a Bloomsburg miss for a 90-82 lead with 48 ticks left. Owens then hit two more free throws followed by a three-pointer from Mike Cheatle (Lower Gwynedd/Hatboro-Horsham) after an Edinboro miss to make the score 90-87 with 23 seconds to play. Then Bloomsburg turned the ball over with Mitchell hitting one of two free throws to give Edinboro a 91-87 lead. After another Huskie turnover, Rob Sims hit one of two again for Edinboro to make the final 92-87.

In the first half, the Huskies led from the start and opened a six point lead at 25-19 on a free throw by Owens with 6:16 left in the half. Edinboro then rallied and tied the score at 40 when Sims scored with 12 seconds left to go before halftime.

Bloomsburg, 2-8, was led by Owens who poured in a career-high 33 points, while Ryan Nenstiel added 13 points and Mike Cheatle a career-best 11 points off the bench.

Edinboro, now 8-1, was led by Donaldson with 23 points, while Mitchell finished with 22 and Tielsch 13.

The Huskies are idle till Jan. 4th, 2005 when they take on Slippery Rock at the Nelson Field starting at 7:30 p.m.