Ben Martin – Sports Writer
The universities Men’s basketball team was down by ten points to the Bentley University Falcons with just 2:16 left in the fourth quarter; however, the Owls would not go down without a fight.
The Owls comeback would begin with guard Sean James, sophomore, going to the free throw line for three foul shots. He would go three for three from the charity stripe cutting the lead to seven.
Next, his back court partner guard Marty Silvera, fellow sophomore, would add a made three-point shot cutting the Falcons lead to just four. Along with the three pointer, Silvera would add another two made free throws, which had the Falcons leading by only two.
However, the Owls would not score for the rest of the game, which to them losing to the Falcons 72-67.
“I think we played hard, I think we hung in there with them,” Owls head coach Scott Burrell said. “I mean they are number 12 in the country for a reason, we just got to get stops.”
Along with the Owls playing hard, the last time the Owls and Falcons matched up was on December 3rd and the Falcons took the game by 24 points. We won seven games last year and we are growing and improving each game Burrell said.
Along with Burrell, James noted the improvement in the point differential between the two matchups as a sign of growth for the Owls.
As a result of their efforts in the late fourth quarter come back, James and Silvera lead the Owls scoring attack. With James scoring a game high 27 points, while making seven three pointers. Silvera had 11 points and six assists offensively to go along with his six steals on the defensive end. Along with the owls back court, center Zack Penn, graduate student, contributed 11 points as well, adding on five rebounds and four assists.
Along with Coach Burrell, James agreed that the game was a hard-fought matchup.
“Like any game, team goes on a run and we had some trouble sometimes stopping their runs,” James said. “It was just back and forth, honestly there was just not enough time on the clock for us to be able to get the win.”
Over the last two contests, the Owls have had a problem when it comes to winning close games. They dropped Saturday’s matchup by five points and lost to Southern New Hampshire University by one the Tuesday prior.
Silvera says the key to winning close games in the future is togetherness and getting everyone involved.
“We just got to stay together as a team and just find a way to get the win, anyway we get it,” Silvera said. “We need everybody, we need the bench, we need the crowd, we need everybody.”
After Saturday’s matchup, the Owls feature seven more regular season games on the schedule as they look to their punch their tickets to the Northeast 10 conference playoffs. The only way to accomplish that task is to win and improve through the end of the season.
“We just got to get better, every time we step foot on the court for practice and games,” Burrell said. “If we grow, learn from this, will get better. There’s not one specific thing we just got to do a lot of things better.”
With the loss, the Owls drop to 13-8 on the season and to 8-5 in the Northeast 10. However, the has time to improve upon both of those records.
“Like coach says we are almost there, just missing a little piece but we are going to get there” James said.
