NEW YORK - The Dickinson men's basketball team will head into the holiday break feeling really good as they turned 23 Messiah University turnovers into 27 points and picked up 33 off the bench en route to a 70-53 non-conference win over the Falcons at Hitchcock Arena.
- Things were tight early as buckets for Cole Cosby and Juan Ruiz had the Red and White trailing 9-6 with four minutes gone.
- Triples for Andrew Cerullo and Brandon Wiercinski along with contributions from Joey Dopirak and David Petrusev brought the Devils to the front at 16-11 still with half of the period to play.
- A Ryan Leskauskas three-ball sparked an 11-3 run for the visitors as Isaiah Edmond and Dopirak chipped in to make it 27-14 inside the final five minutes.
- Caleb Lyles and Cameron Thompson kept the Falcons around at 34-20, but Ruiz and Wiercinski picked up the final three points to set the halftime score of 37-20.Â
- Christian Jackson and Lyles accounted for the opening five points of the frame, before Petrusev reeled off six in a row for a 43-25 advantage.
- After six straight by the Falcons, Matt Mahoney hit twice from deep and Dopirak as well as Wiercinski helped out on a 13-2 outburst to make it 56-33 with less than eight to play.
- A pair of Lyles foul shots slowed things down, but Matt Smith, Cosby, Dopirak and Ruiz extended the lead to nearly 30 (67-42) with 4:29 left.
- Daniel Ablorh, Benjamin Ellis and Charlie Lynch all found the bottom of the bucket during the remainder of the period to close out the 70-53 final.Â
- Points - Dopirak (12), Mahoney and Ruiz (11)
- Rebounds - Petrusev (6), Ruiz (5), Edmond (4)
- Assists - Edmond and Petrusev (2)
- Blocks - Dopirak and Mahoney (1)
- Points - Lyles (14)
- Rebounds - Jackson (5), Lyles (4), Duckett (3)
- Assists - Jackson (3)
- Blocks - Wert (1)
- Dickinson (3-5) will return to action on Sunday, December 29th at 6:30pm when they head to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and Moravian University to battle Baruch College on Day One of the Steel City Classic. It will be the second time this year that the Devils and Bearcats will square off with DC claiming a 66-61 win in New York on December 8th.
