McCANDLESS, Pa. - After trailing 42-44 at halftime, La Roche men's basketball held off the gritty D'Youville Spartans (1-11, AMCC: 0-7) by a final score of 90-79 Saturday afternoon to earn their fifth straight win and remain perfect in conference play at 6-0. Today's victory is the first time this season the men came out victorious after trailing at the half. It's also the first time in 2019-20 LRU came out on top shooting under 50% from the field (32-73, 44%).
AMCC Player of the Week (12/21), Junior forward Tyler Frederick (Butler, PA/Knoch) led the Redhawks with 30 points and tied his career-high with 19 rebounds. Frederick has now scored 30 or more points in back-to-back games, the highest scoring performances of his career.
Final: La Roche: 90, D'Youville: 79
Records: La Roche (6-5, AMCC: 6-0), D'Youville (1-11, AMCC: 0-7)
How it Happened
The Spartans started with the edge, going up 8-4 five minutes into the contest. LRU shot 2 of 7 from the field during that span. Then, the Redhawks managed to make it a two point game with 12 minutes to go after back-to-back buckets from Junior guard Austin Hannes.
D'Youville answered by going on a 11-3 to go up 25-15 with 10 minutes left in the half. The 10 point lead would be the Spartans largest of the contest. The Redhawks strung together an 8-0 run of their own to make it a two-point game. They would head into the half trailing 44-42, the first time this season they have trailed after 20 minutes against an AMCC foe.
The contest remained close through the first 10 minutes of the second half, D'Youville holding the slight edge during that span. LRU gained their first lead of the second after Senior guard Kennedy Smith came down with a big defensive rebound and found Hannes down the court for a triple to go up 60-59 with 10:58 left on the clock.
From that point on, the Redhawks never looked back. La Roche outscored the Spartans 30-20 in those final 10 minutes and led by as many as 16 points late.
Inside the Box Score
Four Redhawks finished in double-digit scoring figures (Frederick: 30, Smith: 16, Hannes: 15, Ross: 14)
La Roche absolutely dominated on the glass, corralling a season-high 64 rebounds to D'Youville's 34. The Redhawks previous season-high in a single game was 44 rebounds.
Sophomore guard Desmond Ross provided some much needed production off the bench for La Roche, putting up a career-high 14 points while shooting 4 of 6 from beyond the arc.
LRU committed a season-high 17 turnovers but limited D'Youville's points off turnovers to just 10.
NEXT UP: Men's basketball heads to Alfred St. this Wednesday, January 8th to take on the Pioneers. Tip-off is set for 6:00 p.m.
