Eagles Fail to Complete Comeback on Senior Day

HUNTINGDON, Pa.- The men's basketball team hosted Drew on Saturday afternoon in Memorial Gymnasium, while also celebrating Senior Day. Unfortunately, the Eagles could not punctuate the occasion with a win and fell 75-67.

Juniata's two seniors, John Kelly (Philadelphia, Pa. / Roman Catholic) and Jamel Foster (York, Pa. / Red Lion Area) are both four-year members of the team and received huge rounds of applause from their teammates and the Juniata faithful.

The Eagles were led in scoring by Chase Husted (DuBois, Pa. / DuBois Area), who finished the game with 16 points on a 7 for 11 shooting night, along with four rebounds and two blocks. Two players tied for the team lead in rebounds, with Nick Rigby (Huntingdon, Pa. / Huntingdon Area) and Gabe Guidinger (York, Pa. / Central York) both having five rebounds. Evan Eisenhart (York, Pa. / Central York) topped the team in assists with four.

The game began as an impressive back and forth sprint, with Juniata leading 19-18 after the first ten minutes of the first half. Drew would then press forward for an advantage going into halftime, leveraging their rebounding advantage and eight points in the last four minutes from David Gervase (Middletown, N.J. / Middletown South).

The Rangers would stretch their 13-point halftime advantage to as many as 19 early in the second half, before an offensive push from Juniata would bring them back within five with less than a minute remaining. The two teams traded timeouts and Juniata spent some fouls to save clock, but Drew was consistent in their free throw shooting and held off the potential comeback. Double-digit scoring nights from all five of the Rangers starters helped keep them out of reach once they took the lead.

Juniata will continue hosting duties on Wednesday evening, facing Goucher at 7:00 PM in Memorial Gymnasium. They'll look to win that and their final contest at Moravian on Saturday to have a chance at making the Landmark Conference Playoffs.