HUNTINGDON, Pa. – The Juniata men's basketball team pulled out a 73-58 win over Medaille College at home Wednesday night in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) quarterfinals. Four of the Eagles five starters finished in double figure points and accounted for over 80 percent of the team's total points.
"It was great to get the first win," said head coach Greg Curley. "I feel like in this tournament, the hardest win is the first win. I'm proud of the way we played the latter part of the second half."
Junior Kevin Stapleton (Indiana, Pa./Indiana) tallied a game-high 20 points to go with his game-highs of five assists and three steals. Fellow junior Brian Scholly (State College, Pa./State College) earned 16 points of his own after shooting 60 percent from the floor. And seniors Nate Higgins (St. Mary's, Pa./Elk County Catholic) and Alex Raymond (Hollidaysburg, Pa./Altoona) finished with 12 and 13 points, respectively.
"We got great leadership from the guys tonight," added Curley. "Nate Higgins played great. He's a senior and he didn't want to go away. I thought our interior guys really came up big and played great. It's a good step, and now we have to take another step as a program and as a team this weekend. We've got to beat some teams that are NCAA caliber teams like us, and that's why it is a great opportunity."
Juniata led by as many as 10 in the first half and went into the break up 33-29. With the Eagles up by five (39-34) at the start of the second half, Medaille went on a 10-0 run to pull ahead by five. Higgins scored back-to-back layups after a timeout and Raymond tied it (44-44) from the free throw line.
The teams would battle back and forth with more than seven lead changes when the Eagles started to pull away.
Medaille was led by Anthony Battaglia and Jammal Coleman. They finished with 13 and 12 points, respectively.
The Eagles will now travel to Albright College to face DeSales University in the south region semifinals on Saturday, March 2. This will be their first time facing the Bulldogs. Juniata is 3-3 all-time in the ECAC tournament under Curley. They have made it to two semifinal games.
"Now we need to make it to the finals," Curley added. "It's a great tournament, with really, really good teams. It's a great experience for us, but I think right now we need to take a step as a program. We're going to have to play our best game of the year in order to beat everyone."
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