The Saint Vincent men's basketball team opened the 2014-15 season with a 58-52 loss to Denison University in the opening round of the Marietta Shrine Tournament in Marietta, Ohio.

Pat Jones scored a career-high 20 points to lead the Bearcats, but SVC was unable to hold a narrow (27-25) halftime lead.

The Bearcats scored the game's first five points off a layup by JC Howard and a three pointer by Jones.  Jaylon Bell then added a free throw at the 15:40 mark to run the lead to 6-0.  

A little over four minutes later, the Bearcats took their largest lead of the game, seven points (15-8) after back to back buckets by Jones and Bobby Swartwout.  A layup by Sean Kett with 9:16 left in the first half made it 20-11 in favor of the Bearcats.  

With 6:35 to go in the half, another score by Jones, made it a double-digit lead, at 25-15, but Denison then scored the game's next 8 points.  SVC managed to hold the two-point edge the remainder of the half.

Denison tied the game less than 30 seconds into the second half, then took their first lead of the game (28-27) with a free throw at the 18:56 mark of the second half.  From there, the lead bounced back and forth over the next 12 minutes.

With 6:23 on the clock, a Jones basket put SVC in front, 45-44, but Denison's Matthew Bauer answered with a three-pointer at the 5:01 mark to make it 47-45.  Jones once again hit the big shot, a three-pointer with 4:36 remaining that put SVC back in front, 48-47.  

However, the next 6 points went to the Big Red, as they took a 53-48 lead with 2:45 to go.  

Howard hit a pair of shots from the charity stripe at the 2:45 mark to cut the gap back to three, 53-50, and a Jones jumper with 35 ticks left made it a 2-point game, 54-52, but the Bearcats were forced to foul in the closing seconds, and Denison managed to hit key shots and grab rebounds to pull away to a six-point win.

Howard added 7 points for SVC, while Kett scored 6.  

Kett led the team in rebounds with 8, while Swartwout added 7.  Bell had three steals for the Bearcats.