Cabrini’s men’s basketball team defeated Baptist Bible College by a score of 93-70 on Saturday, Jan. 21, at the Phelps Student Center in Clarks Summit, Pa. The win gives Cabrini an overall record of 16-1 as well as an 11-0 record in CSAC play.
Senior guard Cory Lemons was the star of this game, scoring 27 points and grabbing five rebounds. Senior guard John Boyd and sophomore forward Fran Rafferty each added 17 points each. Sophomore guard Corey Frizzera scored 10 points while junior forward Tim Sayles added seven points in nine minutes of playing time. As a team, the bench accumulated 23 total points in the winning effort.
“We were coming into a game we knew we should win and needed to win to maintain ourselves atop the CSAC,” Rafferty said. “We got off to a slow start through the first six minutes but settled in and started playing Cavalier basketball.”
The Cavaliers started off slow by letting Baptist Bible jump out to a 7-0 lead. After that, the Cavs closed the gap and went on a 20-3 run to turn the game around.
“I think we played an all-around good game on the offense and defensive end,” Saleem Brown, assistant coach, said. “Our starters got going after a slow start and we also received a great effort from the guys on the bench.”
Junior guard A.J. Williams finished the first half with a lay-up to push Cabrini’s lead to 47-30. Williams finished the game with seven points in 19 minutes.
Cabrini didn’t slow down after halftime, even though they had taken the lead away from the Defenders. Rafferty had a big second half and helped Cabrini boost their lead to 24 points. The Cavs held onto the lead for the rest of the second half as they continued to pour it on.
The Cavs shot 52 percent from the floor and also knocked down 15 three-point shots. In a losing effort, the Defenders were led by Luke Peterson, Stephen Howard and Jordan Greve. Each player had double-digit points for Baptist Bible.
“My hopes for the season is that we take it one game at a time and don’t overlook any of our opponents,” Brown said. “We have to take that approach every game in order to reach our goal of winning our conference and going far in the NCAA tournament.”
Cabrini will be on the road this weekend when they take on CSAC opponent Centenary College in Hackettstown, N.J., on Saturday, Jan. 28. The Cavs won their first meeting with Centenary College earlier this month by a score of 108-92.
“We have a few tough games coming up against our rival Eastern and then a big, big game at Keystone, so we’re trying to take it one game at a time but our goal is to win the CSAC again and take that momentum into the [NCAA] tournament,” Rafferty said.
