WASHINGTON, D.C.- The Juniata men's basketball team lost a heartbreaker on the road, as they lost 51-50 on the road at the University of Catholic, Wednesday evening at Franny Murray Court.
Evan Eisenhart (York, Pa. / Central York HS) scored the game's first bucket on a three off a pass from Chase Husted (DuBois, Pa. / DuBois Area HS). The Eagles pushed ahead 10-4 as Gabe Guidinger (York, Pa. / Central York HS), Husted and Eisenhart scored from the field, and Michael Montecalvo (Altoona, Pa. / Bishop Guilfoyle HS) made a free throw. The Cardinals got back within two before a jumper from John Kelly (Philadelphia, Pa. / Roman Catholic HS) broke the cold spell from JC.
Catholic took the lead, 18-17, with four and half minutes to go in the first half. The Cardinals got cooking, closing the half on an 11-3 run as Juniata trailed by nine at the break.
Juniata hung around over the opening minutes of the second half as they never let the margin grow larger than 10. Juniata managed to generate some stops and begin to narrow the gap. Montecalvo drilled a three, Husted converted two foul shots from the line and followed on the next possession with a layup. Kohl Bernarding's (Cochranton, Pa. / Cochranton HS) jumper made it 39-38 with under nine to play. Eisenhart drilled a three off a Ross Conway (Lancaster, Pa. / Lancaster Catholic HS) pass to pull JC even for the first time in the second half.
The Cardinals ran off eight straight points before a Montecalvo three. Catholic made two foul shots with two and half minutes remaining in the game and would not score again the rest of the way. Husted scored on a layup after a timeout off a pass from Bernarding.
Juniata forced a miss and call timeout. Following the break, Juniata ran offense that wound up with Bernarding hitting Eisenhart cutting back door along the baseline from the left side. He found Kyle Ruggery (Duncansville, PA / Bishop Guilfoyle HS) who relocated to the corner, and he swished a three to make it 51-49 with 54 seconds on the clock. Following a Catholic timeout, the Eagle defense again held strong as Husted corralled the rebound, and the Eagles ran up the floor. With seconds to go, they called timeout.
A nifty play out of the timeout ended with Eisenhart drawing two defenders to him from the left corner, swinging the ball to Bernarding, who got a good look at a three, but it was a little long. Montecalvo went to try to tip the ball in and was fouled. He made the first, but the second one was just long as it bounced off the back rim and out.
Juniata will travel to New Jersey to take on Drew Saturday at 2:00.
