Ben Martin – Contributor
The Owls got a surprise off the bench in Friday’s 85-71 win over The College of Saint Rose Golden Knights, in the first round of the Northeast 10 conference tournament.
With four minutes and 21 seconds off the clock in the first half Owls captain and senior Ulyen Coleman, senior, was forced to sub out of the game as he had two fouls. In his relief, junior Logan Bagshaw, guard, checked into the game.
“I was ready, whatever they wanted me to do, whatever they need me to do I’m there for it,” Bagshaw said. “Tonight, when they put me in they had confidence in me throughout the whole game.”
Just a minute after entering the game, Bagshaw would knock down his first shot from beyond the arc and from there he would hit an additional four, going 5-7 from beyond the arc. Those threes would propel Bagshaw to his new season high in points of 18 and make him the Owls top scorer for the night.
“My teammates stepped up, got me the ball and I knocked them down,” Bagshaw said. “It’s got to keep going.”
Although Bagshaw had to respond to the pressure of coming off the bench in a big moment, the stage was big for the whole team with the James Moore Field House packed for the first round of the Northeast 10 conference tournament. In addition, if the team were to have lost the matchup, their season would have been over.
“I feel like we played at the level we were supposed to play,” Silvera said. “We have two seniors that did a lot for us this year, so we can’t lose for them. We just came out there and gave it our all.”
Over the past four seasons the Owls have featured the duo of guard Ulyen Coleman, senior, and center Zack Penn, graduated student. The two have improved each year and have both landed the team captain role for this year’s team. Furthermore, this season is their last, so they are looking to go out on a positive note.
Bagshaw would not be the only one on the Owls roster to hit three point shots that night, as the Owls would drop in 15 threes more than doubling the Golden Knights total of seven. Two of those shots would come from someone whose specialty is not three-point shots.
With just over 10 minutes left on the clock in the second half, and the Owls up by 19 guard Marty Silvera, sophomore, drove to the basket. From there he kicked it out to the wide open big man Zack Penn, graduate student, at the top of the key and he swished it.
The next Owls points would also come from the big man hitting a three point shot on a pass from Silvera. However, on this shot Penn would take the shot from the corner and he hit it, from there the bench erupted. Penn’s consecutive three pointers would be half of his points on the night as he finished the game with a double double 12 points and 12 rebounds, along with four assists.
“My teammates were just giving me the ball when I was open so I just shot it,” Penn said. “I work on my three everyday even if coach doesn’t really like it, but you just got to be confident.”
Along with the two passes that lead to the Penn three pointers, Silvera played a significant role in the outcome of the game. The sophomore finished the game with 14 points to pair with nine assists and four rebounds.
“Personally, I feel like I’ve been playing bad, so it kind of felt good to hit a couple shots find my play and just have fun with it,” Silvera said.
Although the Owls took the game, they were outscored in the second half by the Golden Knights 38-36. In addition, the Owls held a 26-point lead with four minutes and 54 seconds left; however, the Golden Knights cut the deficit down to 14 points by the end of the game.
“You just got to finish, you tell them you got to finish,” Owls head coach Scott Burrell said. “You got to play hard for 40 minutes finish a game, not let people who didn’t have a chance, feel like they have a belief in winning the game.”
