Box Score
MANHATTAN, N.Y. – The Kenyon College men's basketball team opened up the 2014 portion of the season in the Empire State for the first day of the NYU Holiday Classic. The Lords jumped back into play against the United States Merchant Marine Academy at the Coles Sports Center, home of New York University. Kenyon earned its sixth win of the season, extending its current winning streak to four, with a 76-73 victory.
Kenyon (6-4) held a lead by as many as 14 points in the second half before Merchant Marine began to slice into the Lords' lead over an eight-minute span. USMMA worked the inside and brought the game to within one bucket with back-to-back lay ups by Zach Karczewski and Hunter Jones. With 44 seconds remaining and a 73-71 score in Kenyon's favor, Merchant Marine took advantage of a turnover by Cooper Handelsman and after calling a timeout came out looking to tie the game. Nick Sergio went up for the game-tying layup but Julian Pavlin came up large on the defensive end with a block, his second of the night, to thwart the scoring try. He followed by putting the game out of reach by hitting two free throws after being fouled with time waning.
Both teams went the entire first half without being separated by more than three points, but Kenyon changed that by extending their two-point halftime lead to 14. In the first five minutes, Ikenna Nwadibia and Pavlin helped break it open with eight of the team's 10 points out of the gate. Brien Comey's second bucket of the evening gave Kenyon its largest lead of the game, 64-50, with 8:07 remaining.
Merchant Marine (5-5) began its comeback down by 10 with 3:35 to go and worked the painted area with four straight made field goals from that range. Forty-four of USMMA's 73 points came in the paint, 22 coming in each half.
Nwadibia led all scorers with 22 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the field. He did a majority of his damage from the free throw line, going 10-for-13 on the game. He now has double-digit scoring performances in all 10 games this season and now has five games with 20 points or more. He also added four steals and five rebounds.
Pavlin went 5-for-9 from the field and 5-for-7 from the charity stripe for 18 points, adding four assists, two blocks, and a pair of steals. Furthermore, Pavlin chipped in seven rebounds on the defensive end.
Sergio led Merchant Marine with 14 points, hitting 7-of-14 shots from field goal range. Scott Dennin joined him in double digits with 11 points.
The Lords will take their winning streak into the second day of the NYU Holiday Classic against host New York University, tomorrow evening. Game time is set for 7 p.m. at the Coles Sports Center. Live video and live statistics will be available for the game.
