The University boys suffered their first loss of the season Saturday night, falling at Greenwood Christian 61-57 in a back and forth contest.
Sophomore Sabien Cain paced University with 16 first-half points, however, he suffered an injury while scoring the last two points of the first half and could not return in the second half. Cain had 11 second-quarter points and three first-half assists as he helped University take its largest lead of the night at halftime, 31-25.
Greenwood Christian scored the first six points of the second half to knot the game at 31 and neither team led by four the rest of the way, The score was a one possession contest for nearly the entire second half. Robert Russell scored for the Blazers with 1:53 to tie the game at 5. Each team missed a shot before Greenwood Christian made a pair of foul shots with 18 seconds left. University turned to ball over with seven seconds remaining and the Cougars made two more foul shots to close the scoring.
Larry Pierce had 12 points and Robert Russell 11 for the Blazers.
“I thought our guys played their hearts out tonight and this came could have gone either way” said University coach Brandon Lafferman. “Greenwood Christian was well prepared and coached and played really hard and they did a couple more things they needed to do than we did to win the game. It was tough losing Sabien after the first half but guys stepped up to do what they needed to keep us in it. We will learn from this loss and move on with a couple of big games next week”
University hosts Scecina Memorial on Friday evening at The U Center before traveling to Anderson on Saturday to face Liberty Christian as part of a girl-boy doubleheader.
GREENWOOD CHRISTIAN 61, UNIVERSITY 57
University FG FT TP PF
Nate Jeffrey 0-2 3-3 3 2
Kahmi Bracey 2-4 0-0 4 3
Robert Russell 4-14 2-2 11 3
Sabien Cain 5-9 2-2 16 1
Larry Pierce 5-12 2-2 12 1
Bryce Gray 3-4 0-1 8 2
Andre Ozlowski 0-2 0-0 0 2
Seth Hogg 1-4 0-0 3 1
Steven Scott 0-0 0-0 0 0
Totals 20-51 9-10 57 15
Score by Quarters
University 10 21 10 16 – 57
GCA 17 8 19 17 – 61
University 3-point shooting (8-25) Cain 4-5, Gray 2-3, Russell 1-7, Hogg 1-4, Bracey 0-2, Ozlowski 0-2, Pierce 0-1, Jeffrey 0-1.
University rebounds (20) Pierce 4, Ozlowski 4, Gray 3, Russell 3, Jeffrey 3, Hogg 2, Pierce 1.