Second Half Push Lifts Eagles to 69-62 Victory over Goucher

HUNTINGDON, Pa.- Trailing by nine points early in the second half, the Juniata men's basketball team needed a big run against Goucher to take the lead. The Eagles' 17-3 run gave them the lead they needed to push ahead and got another late run to come out with a 69-62 victory over the Gophers on Tuesday night at Memorial Gymnasium.

The two teams were tied at 14-all at the 12:18 mark of the first half. Juniata was able to get ahead thanks to a three-point play from Brandon Martinazzi (Cresson, Pa./Bishop Carroll) at 10:53. The Eagle lead was still three points, 23-20, with 5:33 to go but the Gophers would end the half on a 13-4 run which included the last six points to lead 33-27 at the break.

 The Gopher lead extended at the beginning of the second half as it grew to 38-29. The Eagles began to chip away at the deficit as another three-point play from Martinazzi tied the contest up at 42-42 with 11:14 showing on the clock.

Goucher regained the lead as Tre Galloway III sank one of his two free throw attempts. Two big three-point shots from Damon Rickens (Altoona, Pa./Bishop Guilfoyle) would give Juniata its biggest lead of the night at that point, 48-43, with 10:18 to play and the momentum seemed to tip in the Eagles' favor.

The Gophers were able to battle back as they went up 54-52 at 6:49 following a layup from Galloway. Juniata nearly duplicated its run from earlier with a 12-2 spurt to go up 62-54 with 2:47 showing on the game clock.

Goucher would not go down easy at it was a two-possession with just 16 ticks on the clock. The Gophers needed to foul and did so which put Justin Fleming (Richmond, Va./Benedictine College Prep) on the line. Fleming made his first but missed his second attempt, which was brought down by Goucher's Norman Allen II. Fleming would force a turnover to give the Eagles possession and Marcus Lee (Carrolltown, Pa./Bishop Carroll) converted both of his free throws with five seconds left to seal the victory.

Lee led the Eagles with 20 points on 8-of-15 shooting and also had a team-high seven rebounds. Dennis Fisher (Bellefonte, Pa./Bald Eagle Area) added 10 points. Martinazzi chipped in nine points as did Nate Ogle (Falls Church Va./George Mason), who also grabbed six rebounds. Kyle Koehler (Chester Springs, Pa./Devon Prep) scored five points, pulled down four rebounds, and also blocked three shots. Fleming finished with five points, five rebounds, and three steals.

"I thought we got contributions from everybody tonight," noted head coach Greg Curley after the game. "We felt we were in good shape at halftime. We just need to keep chopping away and keep playing defense the way we do. That's how we play."

Overall, the Eagles were good on 24-of-58 (50%) of their shots on the night. Juniata led in the paint 34-28. Both teams had 29 rebounds.

"I felt that we got our team back tonight and that's fun," said Curley. "I thought that was a fun game for our guys and they played relaxed for the most part. We made it more interesting in the end than we probably needed to but we made a lot of plays down the stretch too that put the game away."

The Eagles embark on their longest stretch of road games this season starting this Thursday at Elizabethtown. Game time will be at 7 p.m.