ROSEMONT, Pa. – The Cairn University men's basketball team claimed a gritty, 73-67 victory on the road over Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC) foe Rosemont College inside Alumnae Hall on Saturday afternoon, sweeping the season series against the Ravens.
"Today was a tale of two halves." remarked Head Coach Jason O'Connell. "As well as we played in the first half was as much as we struggled in the second half. Even though we didn't play a complete game, our bench production was outstanding. All of our bench gave us big minutes, especially Owen and Dashaun. Owen was incredibly efficient, going eight-of-11 from the field and made some timely plays. Dashaun helped us on the defensive end and came up big at the free throw line when we needed them most. Last but not least, Richie came up clutch for the second-straight game, hitting two big threes."
Rosemont (9-14, 7-5 CSAC) looked solid early, jetting out to a 7-0 lead just under three minutes into the contest, forcing an early timeout by the Highlanders. Cairn (15-9, 10-2 CSAC) chipped away at the deficit until a triple by fifth-year Mizz Nyagwegwe (Norristown, PA / Eastern Mennonite University) gave Cairn its first lead at 19-16 near the midway point of the first half. Rosemont regained the advantage with 7:40 left in the half (22-21), but the Highlanders closed the frame on a scorching 16-3 run to take a 37-25 lead into intermission.
Cairn's advantage was at 12 (51-39) just under seven minutes into the second half. That was when Rosemont made its run, rattling off a 14-0 run over the next six minutes to regain the lead (53-51) with eight minutes to play. The Rosemont lead was four (62-58) with 5:52 remaining, before the Highlanders got the rally they needed in the form of an 11-2 sprint, highlighted by a pair of triples by fifth-year Richard Rosas (Lancaster, PA / Lancaster Mennonite). Cairn held a three-point lead (70-67) with 21 seconds to play, with fifth-year Jesse Rivera (Doylestown, PA / Central Bucks East) at the charity stripe with a chance to ice the game. Rivera buried the first free throw, before missing his second attempt off the back rim. However, Rosas snagged a crucial offensive rebound, and fifth-year Dashaun Cain (Wilmington, DE / Red Lion Christian Academy) was subsequently fouled, where he knocked down both free throws to seal the win for Cairn.
Cairn narrowly outshot the Ravens, 47.3% (26-55) to 46.9% (23-49) and won the rebounding battle (35-28). Cairn claimed the victory by dominating the bench points category to a 41-25 advantage.
Cairn was led by two players off the bench in the form of junior Owen Bradford (Lansdale, PA / University of Valley Forge) and Cain. Bradford finished with a season-high 16 points on eight-of-11 shooting, while Cain added 14 points, seven boards and three assists. Cain also went six-of-seven from the charity stripe in the contest. Fifth-year Kameron Clark (Ewing, NJ / Ewing HS) finished in double figures with 12 points and grabbed a team-high eight rebounds, while Rosas and junior Josh Forker (Telford, PA / Faith Christian Academy) each tallied eight point. Rivera dished out a game-high seven assists to lead both squads.
The Highlanders will be back on the floor on Wednesday, February 15 when they make the trip to Morristown for their final road conference game of the season against Saint Elizabeth University (8-13, 5-7 CSAC) at 8 p.m.