After dropping a game to Asbury University  66-63, last Thursday night, the men’s basketball team came back two days later with an 81-73 victory against Alice Lloyd.

“The season goes on and you start figuring out the puzzle a bit more and it becomes clear and guys filter into their roles,” Head coach Joe Lewand0wski said. “You find that you have some gritty and tough kids and you say, “hey, we’re going to win same games by playing great defensively.”

Lead by senior guard Asim Pleas with 21 points, the Pioneers ended the game shooting 27-59 from two and 13-30 behind the arc. From the free throw line, the team went 14-20. 

“I give the credit to my teammates,” Pleas said. “A majority of the looks I got were all wide open looks that my teammates recognized.”

Also scoring double digit points for Point Park was senior guard Daniel King with 18 and sophomore guard Chance Wright with 15.

Junior forward Cortez Allen made his presence known on both sides of the court finishing the contest with nine points, a team high eight rebounds and three assists. The Pioneers totaled 13 assists all night.

“The four senior leaders were big time. Look at the rebounds and charges Cortez took. Phenomenal. Asim and King are awesome and just keep making plays,” Lewandowski said. “When you have your seniors making those plays, it’s refreshing to see for the program that they’re coming through for you.”

After a high scoring first half, the Pioneers went into the break with a lead of 42-38. Through the second, Point Park maintained the lead until the halfway point. It was a back and forth battle with six lead changes throughout the contest.

With Wright draining two threes and a 3-point play from King, the Pioneers were leading with five minutes to go.

“I’ve been taking extra reps at practice and the guys have been telling me to keep shooting and it will come.” Wright said. “Tonight they kept feeding me the ball and they believe in me so it wasn’t for that I wouldn’t have scored anything.”

From the get go, Alice Lloyd found themselves in foul trouble totaling 21 on the game. This worked in Point Park’s favor in the final minutes after Allen drew a charge in the final minutes to help Point Park secure a 75-71 lead.

Thursday, Asbury took a quick 6-0 lead, and Point Park was never able to catch up. While the Pioneers won in most categories of the stat sheet, the scoreboard told a different story.

Over the course of the game, Point Park totaled 43 rebounds, 13 assists and went 21-54 on field goals. They shot 9-23 3-pointers. King lead the team with 14 points and Pleas followed him with 11. Junior forward Kyle Carrington, senior Tramell Perry, and Pleas all totaled eight points.

Point Park went into the second half trailing 24-19. Throughout the half, the Pioneers chipped away at the lead. With 4:45 left, Allen knocked down a 2-pointer and sophomore guard Tudor Shelton followed it with a 3-pointer to make the deficit 56-49.

Carrington and King came back with a two-point and three-point basket respectively. King then cut the lead to two points after a 3-pointer at 1:58. After drawing a foul, sophomore Mark Shehady tied the game up at 56 with 1:08 left.

However, with under a minute, Allen committed a foul on Trenton Thompson of Alice Lloyd which he followed up with two successful free throws which killing Point Park’s chances of making a comeback.

Following the weekend the team stands at 4-8 in the conference and 7-13 overall. Pioneers are now in third place in the River States Conference (RSC). Above them is Indiana University East and West Virginia Tech. Just behind Point Park is Rio Grande with a 3-9 record.

Point Park continues their season Friday at Wilberforce for a non-conference match-up.