Ben Martin – Contributor
The Owls men’s basketball team showed some late half heroics in their 81-59 win over the Adelphi University Panthers.
With one second left on the clock after the Panthers cut the Owls’ lead to ten on two free throws, The Owls inbounded the ball to sophomore guard Marty Silvera. Silvera took one step and shot the ball from just beyond half court and it went in just as the clock expired, allowing the Owls to take a 41-28 lead into half-time.
“For a couple of games I’ve been playing kinda bad,” Silvera said. “This game felt good, I’m trying to get my rhythm back before post season , so it just felt good to play good today and get the job done.”
Although Silvera had the highlight shot, he would not be the only one to score the ball for the Owls. Guard Ulyen Coleman, senior, and forward Zack Penn, graduate student, each tied Silvera’s scoring output and dropped in 16 points each “Coach always says play together and move the ball, share the ball,” Penn said. “I think we did that well tonight and if we can do that we can compete with anyone.”
Coleman agreed with Penn about playing together and sharing the ball. Good things happen when we share the ball, so we will continue to do that Coleman said.
Along with Coleman, Penn and Silvera, the Owls had another player hit double figures in the scoring department; however, he did not crack the starting lineup for the Owls, Saturday. Backup guard, Logan Bagshaw, junior, proved to be a threat from beyond the arc sinking three of four three pointers and finishing the game with 11 points in 15 minutes of play.
“It just shows that we’re real deep,” Coleman said. “You can’t just shut down one of us and hope that get’s us out of our rhythm.”
Along with the versatility on offense, the Owls defense also played well. The Owls ended the game by stealing the ball and blocking it more times than the Panthers with the Owls winning in steals 10-3 and blocks3-2. In addition, the Owls caused 17 total turnovers for the Panthers while only turning the ball over 10 times.
“We picked up our defense from the last couple of games,” Silvera, who had five steals this game, said. “We was really on there three main scorers and it was just a good game.”
Along with Silvera, forward Charif Diarra, sophomore, contributed two blocks and Penn had one block.
“I was happy that my teammates were passing the ball to me and I was able to make some shots,” Penn said.
The Owls also won the rebounding battle, outrebounding the Panthers 45-32.
“Keep the momentum up, keep the high energy, keep the positivity and we’ll be in a good spot.”
After beating the Panthers, the Owls will play three more games all in the Northeast 10 conference with implications on their standings going into the conference tournament.
“We just got to go in there with the same mentality we had today, the defensive mentality” Silvera said. “Defense starts everything, so if we start how our defense did today, then we should be good.”
“Team defense is not the only key to success for the Owls in the tournament, playing a complete game is something Penn put emphasis on. We played good offense and defense today, so if we can continue it we will be successful down the stretch,” Penn said.
Along with playing a complete game, being able to utilize depth is something the Owls hope to do in the tournament.
“We’re a deep team and when we’re playing good basketball, we can beat anybody,” Coleman said.
