Gannon Knight Sports

     With three games slated on the schedule and the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference playoffs looming, this past week could have been a big one for the Gannon men’s basketball team.
          Unfortunately, it was not to be, as the team dropped all three games in close contests beginning on Monday evening against Lake Erie College, continuing on Wednesday night at Edinboro University, and all leading up to a showdown Saturday with No. 8 conference power Indiana (Pa.) University.
     While all three games were important for the Knights as they looked to move up from their third-place starting point in the conference, the game against IUP was arguably the most intriguing, as Gannon both had an opportunity to upset the country’s eighth-ranked team while at the same time attaining the victory that slipped away a few weeks prior in the teams’ first meeting.
     The Knights came up just short in the first 73-66 loss and, despite what the 62-49 final score might indicate, it appeared early on that the outcome would be different this time around.
     The two teams played each other evenly throughout the first half with Gannon overcoming a 10-point deficit to take a 34-29 lead into the locker room.
     When the Knights emerged, the game continued to go much the same way, though IUP was able to regain the lead a couple minutes into the half and it never gave it back.
     Sophomore guard Steve Piotrowicz and his 15 points paced the Knights’ offensive attack, and he was joined in double-digits by junior forward Travis Brannen, who collected 10 points to go with six rebounds. Junior guard George Johnson added nine points and six rebounds of his own.
     “It was a very intense game, they’re the second-ranked team in the region, and they’re a pretty good rival of ours,” coach John Reilly said. “We knew we were going to have to play better down at their place, and we probably played the best first half of our season. We played good defense and had good intensity. In the second half, they increased their intensity, and I think the big difference is that in the first half we made shots and the second half we didn’t.”
     The two games earlier in the week resembled the IUP game in that they were back-and-forth affairs in which neither team was able to gain any sort of a substantial lead nor, as in the case of both the victors, were they able to pull away from the scrappy Knights.
     During the Edinboro contest, the teams traded leads in the early minutes before Edinboro gained the lead which it would retain for the duration of the game, and when a Gannon rally fell short, Edinboro secured its 69-60 victory.
     The Knights received major offensive contributions from three players, including Johnson, who had a team-high 20 points and eight rebounds; freshman forward Anthony Simmons, who had 13 points and eight rebounds; and freshman forward Tanner Furno, who added 10 more points and six more rebounds.
     The Lake Erie game was even closer, as each team effectively mirrored the other’s scoring in what turned out to be a sprint to the 66-61 final score.
     Johnson again led the team in scoring, this time with 13 points. Piotrowicz and Furno were next on the list, with 10 points each, and were followed by senior forward Alfonso Scandrett, who added nine points, and Simmons, who scored eight.
     The team will look to bounce back in its last two regular-season games this week, first when it hosts rival Mercyhurst College Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in the Hammermill Center and then when it hosts Lock Haven University at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
     Reilly and his team are looking forward to finishing off the season with these two must-win games.
     “Mercyhurst is a big game; we’re sixth in the league and they’re fifth,” he said, “We’re trying to make the postseason and finish up strong. These are two big games and we need to play well, and we know we’re capable of that.”