The men’s basketball team dropped three straight games over Thanksgiving break as there record falls from 2-1 to 2-4 on the season.

Their first game was against Washington Adventist University (WAU) on Nov. 13, where they lost to the Shock 75-55 and giving WAU their first win of the season.

The Pioneers then traveled to Buffalo, New York last Monday for two non-conference games. Their first was against Bryant & Stratton College (B&S), where they lost 71-56 and then against Villa Maria College the next day, losing 92-78.

Point Park and Washington Adventist were both off to a sluggish start, the score knotted at 15 with less than nine minutes left in the first half.

The Pioneers took their first lead of the night with two minutes remaining in the first half on sophomore guard Mark Shehady’s two made free throws, giving them the lead at 30-29.

Point Park went on a 9-0 run in the last three minutes of the first half to put them ahead 33-29 after the break.

“We played a very good first half against a really tough team,” Shehady said. “We shared the ball well and forced a lot of turnovers early.”

The Pioneers jumped out to an even larger lead coming out of the half, extending their halftime run to 14 unanswered points on senior guard Justice Cuthbertson’s two-point jumper from the corner. The Pioneers then had their biggest lead of the night up nine points, 38-29.

From there, the Shock went on an 11-2 run of their own that tied the game at 40-40 with 15 minutes to play.

Washington Adventist broadened their run to 24-9 midway through the second half, as they led the Pioneers 53-42 with less than 10 minutes to play.

In the second half, the Pioneers shot just 8-24 from the field and committed 10 of their 18 turnovers during the final 20 minutes of play.

Point Park also shot just 5-14 at the foul line in the second half, finishing the game at 52 percent and going 14-27.

The team was led by Cuthbertson, who had 18 points and went 6-9 at the charity stripe.

Sophomore guards Kyle Carrington and Chance Wright added nine points apiece and senior guard Asim Pleas put in seven points and grabbed five boards in his 19 minutes of play.

The Pioneers shot just 33 percent from the floor going 17-51. Seven of those field goals were three-pointers, resulting in 10 field goals scored inside the arc.

They tallied eight total assists on the night and were out-rebounded by the Shock 46-32.

The matchup between Point Park and Bryant & Stratton College was neck-and-neck throughout the first half.

The score rested at 36-35 in favor of the Pioneers at the end of the first 20 minutes.

Point Park went 5 for 13 from beyond the arc in the first half and went 13 for 18 at the free throw line.

With a little over 10 minutes to play in the second half, the Pioneers were behind on the scoreboard 51-49.

That is the closest they would come to taking the lead from the Bobcats, as the Pioneers went ice cold from the floor shooting just 21 percent.

“We are still getting adjusted with each other,” senior guard Daniel King said. “I feel we will get back to playing the right type of basketball these next few games.”

Point Park scored just seven points in the final ten minutes of the game and went 2-8 at the free throw line.

The Pioneers could not stop WAU’s offense as the Bobcats went 13-25 from the field on 52 percent shooting in the second half, while also going 8-10 from the charity stripe.

Point Park shot their worst field goal percentage of the season, going just 16-60 from the field and shooting 26 percent.

The team was led by Pleas, who tallied a double-double scoring 13 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. King also added to the Pioneer stat line with 12 points, four assists and four steals.

The Pioneers then faced off with Villa Maria College the ensuing day where they were outplayed in the first half, down on the scoreboard 54-30 at the end of the first 20 minutes.

Point Park never led throughout the game and battled a big deficit coming out of the half.

The Pioneers outscored the Vikings 48-38 in the second half on 47 percent shooting and hit eight three-pointers to bring the deficit to just 12 with under a minute to play.

Their comeback attempt was not enough, and Villa Maria’s huge first half lead kept them in the driver’s seat the rest of the way.

The Pioneers went 18-23 at the free throw line and tallied 39 bench points as King finished with 15 points and Cuthbertson added 19 coming off the bench.

Point Park was led by King and Cuthbertson as well as Carrington, who added 12 points of his own.

The Pioneers open up River States Conference play on Tuesday, Nov. 27 at home versus Carlow.