COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – Ursinus Men's Basketball head coach Kevin Small earned his 300th career win as the Bears defeated Washington College 86-75 on Saturday afternoon at Helfferich Hall in Centennial Conference play.
Prior to today's contest, the Bears honored its two graduating seniors, Matt McMahon and Peyton Vostenak, as part of senior day ceremonies. With the win, the Bears improved to 12-9 overall and 9-6 in Centennial Conference action. Meanwhile, the Shoremen fell to 4-19 overall and 1-15 in conference play. The winningest coach in Ursinus Bears Men's Basketball history, Small became the sixth coach in Centennial Conference history to reach the 300-win plateau.
Even with Coach Small's accomplishment and senior day, sophomore Trevor Wall stole the show with a dazzling performance as he registered a career-high 36 points on 12-of-17 shooting from the field, 5-of-8 from three-point range, and 7-of-8 from the free throw line. Senior Ryan Hughes added 21 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the field along with six rebounds, four assists, and three blocks. Sophomore Sean Neylon posted 10 points and just missed out on a double-double with nine rebounds.
The Bears reeled off 13-straight points following the Shoremen opening the game with the first basket to take a 13-2 advantage at the 16:03-mark. Behind strong shooting and a high tempo, the Bears built a lead as large as 14 points at 23-9 with 10:10 remaining in the first half. However, much like the first meeting back in January, the Shoremen battled back and used a 17-7 run to cut the Bears lead down to four points at 30-26 with 4:42 left in the first half. Ursinus countered the run by stretching its lead back out to 10 points at 44-34 in the final minute of the first half before taking a 44-36 advantage into the locker rooms.
Ursinus scored on its first two possessions of the second half to take a 48-38 lead in the opening minute. But the Shoremen refused to go away as they tied the game for the first time since the opening minute of the first half with a 15-5 run, behind four three-pointers, bringing the score to 53-all at the 14:27-mark. Wall slammed the door shut on the run with five-straight points to put the Bears back up 58-53 just two minutes later. The teams traded points over the next five minutes with Ursinus finally being able to take a lead by more than five at the 7:32-mark after Wall made two free throws to make it a 66-60 contest. Hughes and Wall pushed the Bears advantage out to nine at 71-62 before Washington College closed back in with four-straight points to make it a 71-66 game. However, the Bears were finally able to close out the Shoremen with a 10-0 run to go up 81-66 with 2:39 left in regulation. Ursinus held the Shoremen without a point for a stretch of 2:45 and forced two turnovers. Washington College got no closer than nine points the rest of the way.
The Bears shot 55.9 percent (33-of-59) from the field and went 9-of-25 (36%) from beyond the arc. Ursinus went 11-of-16 (68.8%) from the free throw line and held a 37-29 rebounding advantage. Meanwhile, the Shoremen went 27-of-62 (43.5%) from the field but just 7-of-24 (29.2%) from beyond the arc. Washington College shot 73.7 percent (14-of-19) from the free throw line in the loss as well.
Tray Wright paced the Shoremen offense with a team-high 25 points on 9-of-15 shooting from the field and grabbed six rebounds. Precieux Tshibangu added 12 points and five rebounds while three Shoremen (Kedrick Fink, Jason Zielinski, and Dilyn Becker) posted 10 points apiece.
Ursinus returns to action on Monday, February 14th as they will travel to Dickinson for a pivotal Centennial Conference showdown at 7 p.m.