PITTSBURGH, PA- Tonight the men's basketball team of La Roche University fought hard, and were able to come out on the other side with a ticket to the semifinals.
In the beginning of the first period it was anyone's game. Hilbert in fact, went on a seven point scoring run. The Redhawks however, went to work and were able to give themselves a large berth going into halftime. Helping to make sure they had a little wiggle room was freshman, Kadyn Hannah who shot 58.8 percent from the field, and ended tonight's contest with a total of 25 points.
This helped the Redhawks go to the locker room at half, up by 21 points.
However, coming out of the locker room was a different story. La Roche seemed to have relaxed into their 21 point safety net and weren't playing with the same vigor they had in the first period. Head Coach, Hermie Carmicheal agreed and called a timeout to make sure everyone was on the same page.
After this conversation Joe Pipilo came alive. Pipilo netted 16 points, and captained the ship in rebounds with nine, and contributed five assists. The sophomore shot 58.3 percent from field goal range and had two made three point shots on the night.
Another contributor to the Redhawks success was their defense. The defense forced 16 turnovers (La Roche had four turnovers) from the Hawks and made sure to put them to good use. The team turned those turnovers into 20 points.
The team's offense also went hard in the paint. The Redhawks put up 50 points to Hilbert's 38 in the paint. Mike Brooks knew where the sweet spot was and made sure to take advantage; he walked away tonight with 13 points in the score book.
In the end this was a hard fought game for everyone; there were five ties, and two lead changes throughout the course of the game.
In the end, it's the La Roche University Redhawks that will be making the trek to Penn State-Behrend to face the Penn State-Altoona Lions at 8:30 PM on Friday, February 25.
