CARLISLE, Pa. - The Dickinson men's basketball team entered Thursday's Centennial Conference matchup with the visiting Muhlenberg College in search of a key win in an attempt to start a climb up the standings. In order to accomplish this the Red and White mixed up the starting lineup as
Cole Cosby,
Randy Shephard,
Skyler Venezia and
Brandon Wiercinski joined the one constant
Nate Ogbu, and it paid off big-time with a 73-50 win over the Mules inside the Kline Center.
After Giovanni Rubino put the guests on the board first, buckets for Cosby, Venezia and Wiercinski aided an 11-3 outburst for an 11-5 edge with five minutes gone. The Mules spent the next five minutes chipping away with treys from Drew Greene and Jayson Williams-Johnson following a jumper by
David Petrusev to leave it at 13-11. Dickinson used the ensuing ten minutes to build up their lead as Ogbu found Cosby for a jumper, while
Andrew Gostovich,
Ryan Leskauskas and Petrusev all found the bottom of the net during a 10-3 charge to make it 23-14. A pull-up jay for Rubino stunted the run for a second, but
Luis Ruiz, Shephard and Venezia (Petrusev assist) all hit in the paint prior to Leskauskas setting up Wiercinski for a triple to open it up to 32-19 with 3:14 left. Wiercinski would chip in four of the final seven points of the frame to give the Red and White a 36-22 halftime lead.
Muhlenberg came out of the break trying to find a way back into the game with Brandon Goldberg, Luke Gordos and Williams-Johnson tallying six of the first nine points over the opening two minutes to cut it down to 39-28. The home side then used four points by Venezia and two each from Cosby and Ogbu to stretch it out to 47-30 with 5:31 gone. A Wiercinski three-ball was the lone DC bucket during a 7-3 MC push to knock it down to 50-37. Once again though the home side had the immediate answer as Gostovich book-ended a 13-3 rampage for the Devils with other contributions coming from Ogbu and Petrusev making it 63-40 with 7:29 remaining. It would take two minutes for either team to find the board again with foul shots by Liam Gorman and Williams-Johnson trimming the gap by three, before baskets out of the hands of Cosby, Venezia and Wiercinski blew the advantage out to 70-46. Dickinson would hand free throws from
Daniel Ablorh and
B.J. McNeil over the final two minutes to set the 73-50 final.
Red Devil Leaders
Points - Venezia and Wiercinski (15), Gostovich (12)
Assists - Ogbu (4), Gostovich and Leskauskas (2)
Rebounds - Ogbu (8), Petrusev and Venezia (6), Gostovich (5)
Mule Leaders
Points - Williams-Johnson (12)
Assists - Rubino (2)
Rebounds - Goldberg, Rubino and Stanton-Shepherd (4)
Next on the Court
Dickinson (7-11, 4-7 Centennial) is back on the Kline Center floor on Saturday afternoon at 4pm when they welcome the Fords of Haverford College to Carlisle on Alumni Day.
