photos by Madison Turiczek
Junior guard and forward Yandell Denis goes for two points in the game against IU Southeast last Friday.

Senior guard Barry Smith shoots a lay up over his opponent late in the game against the Grenadiers last Friday. Smith ended the game with 21 points.

The Point Park men’s basketball team held a close game last Friday against IU Southeast, but the game fell out of their grasp.

Point Park held a 10-point lead with a score of 69-59, with less than eight minutes to play, but IU Southeast out ran them in the end.

“That was a tough loss as a team because we really felt that we should have won that game, especially the fact we were up at 10 points in the second half,” said guard Yandell Davis.

Jerah’me Williams and Alan Heter scored 21 points for the Pioneers; T.J. Lanier followed with 18 points.

Even though the Pioneers put their best foot forward, they couldn’t recover fast enough with IU Southeast and went four minutes without scoring.

“It was really frustrating,” Williams said. “The loss was very hard to take, but our team had came together with a meeting and now, we know what we have to do.”

The Pioneers forward Barry Smith also fouled out. Smith had been guarding IU Southeast player Jake Simpson, who leads the Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (KIAC) with 23.9 ppg.

Smith had 13 rebounds before fouling out with less than six minutes to go and the Pioneers holding on to a close 69-67 lead.

“Not necessarily and adjustments had to be made when I fouled out, just had to try to get some stops on defense,” Smith said.

IU Southeast was still in the lead by three points at 78-75 when the Grenadiers’ Parker Henes hit two free throws with less than two minutes in the game.           
Point Park missed a couple of three-pointers for a chance to tie the game.

The Pioneers still tried to not give up when Williams went to the basket for a layup and cut the score to 78-77 with 11 seconds to go.

The Grenadiers’ Simpson was fouled and went to the foul line for two shots. Simpson got the first but missed the second.

Williams tried to even the score again with a potential game winning three-pointer, but it was no good as the time expired.

Point Park failed to uphold their lead against bottom ranked IU Southeast. The Grenadiers entered the game with the record of 5-14 overall and a KIAC record of 2-6.

The Pioneers remain in second place in the division at 3-4 KIAC.

Point Park had three turnovers and 17 assists but were not efficient in their shooting at only 37 percent overall and 21 percent from long range.

The Pioneers returned Tuesday night at Carlow College in a KIAC game at 6 p.m. It was the first-ever meeting between Point Park and Carlow, as they are in their first year of men’s basketball in school history.

“IU Southeast and Carlow are pretty big for our standings in the conference,” Smith said. “We are trying to get a good spot for the tournament.”