A valiant effort fell just short as Drew lost to Ursinus, 53-50, in Baldwin Gym. The Rangers tied the game at 50-50 on a three pointer by Gerard Mullin, but three Bears free throws down the stretch gave the visitors the win. Ursinus improves to 4-1 while Drew falls to 2-5.
The Rangers led the game at half 26-23. Chris Lopez hit a pair of threes in the final minute of the opening period gave Drew the advantage as the Rangers stifling defense held the Bears to 35% from field. After a slow start, the Rangers took a 14-13 lead on a David Cramer hoop with just under ten minutes remaining. Gerard Mullin’s acrobatic layup with five minutes remaining in the half gave Drew a 16-14 edge before the Bears rallied to take a 23-20 lead on free throws by Nick Shattuck. In all, there were 10 ties and seven lead changes in the first half alone.
The second half was much of the same as the largest lead of the game was six points. Drew went up by five with 10:41 left in the game on a Damon DiLorenzo three of Scott Miller’s assist. After Keith Page brought the lead down to two with a three, another great drive by Mullin and a DiLorenzo jumper gave Drew a 39-33 lead. The teams battled back and forth until Ursinus tied the match for the first time in the second half on a pair of Shattuck free throws. A John Noonan three with 2:18 left seemed to be the beginning of the end for Drew, but the Rangers fought back as C-Lo quickly responded with a triple of his own. A nice floater by Shattuck gave UC a 49-47 lead with 47 seconds left. After a deliberate Ranger possession, Lopez drove the baseline before kicking out to a spotted-up Mullin; the sophomore drained the clutch three to give Drew a 50-49 lead with 27 seconds left. After a Bears timeout, Remy Cousart was fouled after grabbing a rebound. Cousart hit both of his free throws to give Ursinus a one point edge with 12 seconds left. The Rangers had two chances at the winner, but jumpers by Lopez and Bob Carella rimmed cruelly out and Shattuck hit two free throws to ice the win for the visitors.
Despite the loss, there are a number of bright points for the Rangers. First, the game again proved the quality of the Rangers defense as they held Ursinus 20 points below their average. Also of not is the improving play of Mullin, who has been averaging over 13 point in his last four games including the clutch three, and the play of the Rangers three key inside players, David Cramer, Scott Miller and Dave Pepperman as they combined to hold the Ursinus big men well below their season averages. The game also shows that the Rangers are a difficult team to play at home as they fought this Bears team that had been ranked in the Top 20 by some preseason publications to the end.
Newspaper Box Score UC-M vs Drew Rangers 12/07/06 8:00 at Drew University At Drew University UC-M 53, DREW RANGERS 50 UC-M (4-1) Nick Shattuck 6-12 6-10 18; John Noonan 3-5 3-3 11; Will Furey 2-7 5-6 9; Matt Fabian 3-6 0-0 6; Keith Page 2-6 0-0 5; Remy Cousart 1-3 2-2 4. Totals 17-39 16-21 53. DREW RANGERS (2-5) Chris Lopez 5-15 0-0 14; Bob Carella 4-12 1-1 10; Gerard Mullin 4-7 1-2 10; Damon DiLorenzo 3-5 1-2 8; Scott Miller 2-4 0-1 4; Dave Pepperman 1-2 0-0 2; David Cramer 1-2 0-0 2; Ryan Eisner 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 20-49 3-6 50. UC-M.......................... 23 30 - 53 Drew Rangers.................. 26 24 - 50 3-point goals-UC-M 3-10 (John Noonan 2-4; Keith Page 1-2; Remy Cousart 0-1; Nick Shattuck 0-3), Drew Rangers 7-24 (Chris Lopez 4-10; Damon DiLorenzo 1-1; Gerard Mullin 1-4; Bob Carella 1-6; Ryan Eisner 0-2; David Cramer 0-1). Fouled out--UC-M-None, Drew Rangers-None. Rebounds-UC-M 25 (Matt Fabian 7), Drew Rangers 24 (Scott Miller 6). Assists-UC-M 4 (Remy Cousart 1; Keith Page 1; Kevin McGarvey 1; Matt Fabian 1), Drew Rangers 8 (Scott Miller 3). Total fouls-UC-M 11, Drew Rangers 13. A-221