PITTSBURGH, PA -- The La Roche men's basketball team reached the century mark in their non-conference victory on Tuesday night. The Redhawks defeated Hiram 101-83 to earn their second straight victory and improve to 2-1 on the season.
La Roche never trailed after the first basket of the game. They followed Hiram's opening basket with eight straight points and jumped out to a 25-7 lead. La Roche's hot start came by way of the three-pointer as five different Redhawks drained threes over the course of the run.
Darrell Barron hit a jumper at the 10:18 mark of the first half to stretch the Redhawk lead to nineteen. Hiram began to chip away at the deficit and they cut it to single figures. La Roche responded with seven straight points including a Thomas three-pointer for a 46-29 lead. Hiram closed the half on a 7-2 run but the Redhawks entered the half with a 48-36 advantage.
The Redhawks shot 49% in the first half and hit 8 of 17 three-pointers. Thomas had a team-high 13 first half points.
La Roche started the second half exactly like they did the first. Hiram scored the half's first three points but the Redhawks responed with fourteen straight points and a 62-39 lead. Rayquan Phifer and Zach Gould both drained a pair of three-pointers and the Redhawks dished out seven assists.
Hiram responded with ten straight points but an Evan Brown transition three and three in the corner limited the damage. La Roche worked their way back to a 21 point lead on an And-1 by Tyler Frederick with 6:49 left to play.
Hiram again got back to eleven but the Redhawks closed the game on a 7-2 run and went on for the non-conference victory.
Four Redhawks reached doubled figures including Thomas who had a game-high 20 points. Thomas is currently leading the AMCC with 24.3 points per game.
Phifer finished with 17 points and 4 assists and Zach Gould 15 points and 5 assists. Arnes Bajgora had 12 points and 6 rebounds and Dion Etheridge dished out 8 assists.
The Redhawks shots 49% for the game and 47% from distance. They outrebounded Hiram 40-36 and dished out 30 assists.