The men’s basketball team split their home series last week, defeating Brescia University and falling to Indiana University Southeast, both River State Conference (RSC) rivals.

The Pioneers now bring their record to 12-10 and keep their RSC record at .500, and 4-4.

The men now stand in third place in the RSC East division, just behind Indiana University East and WVU Tech in second and first, respectively.

Facing off against Brescia on Friday, the Pioneers defeated the Bearcats with a score of 86-69.

The first half was closer than the score shows, with five different lead changes.

The first five minutes of the second half were a different story, as Point Park exploded for a 13-point lead. The Pioneers wouldn’t relinquish the lead for the rest of the game, leading by as much as 19 at one point.

Compared to the first half where the Pioneers only out-rebounded the Bearcats 23 to 21, the men absolutely dominated the boards in the second half, out-rebounding Brescia 29 to 12.

“I think the difference was our determination on defense and we came together as a team and said we have to work harder on defense and communicate with one another,” sophomore guard Sherron Schifino said. “We were able to create pressure and force them to take bad shots.”

As a team, Point Park shot 44-percent from the field, but shot a below average 26-percent from three.

Brescia was held to 35-percent shooting from the field, but shot better from beyond the arc at 39-percent.

The men would also lead the way with 12 second-chance points over the Bearcats zero second-chance points.

Three different Pioneers recorded double digit points, with Schifino leading the way with a double-double of 19 points and 10 rebounds.

“Our coach told us that game that us guards need to hit the boards and I went in the game the mentality that I’m going to try and get every rebound that comes my way, or try my best to,” Schifino said.

Junior forwards, Garret McHenry and RJ Fairrow, were right behind him with 17 and 14 points, respectively.

Forward Adam Scott would also lead the way on the boards with ten rebounds and nine points off the bench.

On Sunday, the Pioneers suffered their first home loss to the hands of the Indiana University (IU) Southeast Grenadiers 84-64.

Point Park led for almost all of the first half, giving up the lead right before the end of the half.

The second half was a different story, with the Grenadiers simply outplaying the Pioneers in most aspects: out-shooting and out-rebounding.

“We rushed ourselves and turned the ball over too many times and rushed our shots in the second half,” junior forward Kameron Shockley said. “We also didn’t play defense as well as we did in the first half.”

Point Park was out-shot by IU Southeast 40-percent compared to 43-percent, and was heavily out-shot from behind the arc, as the Pioneers only shot 26-percent while the Grenadiers shot 39-percent and hit over double the amount of threes.

Scott led the way for Point Park, recording a double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds off the bench. Schifino was the only other Pioneer to hit double digit points, scoring 12.

The men will look to rebound from Sunday’s loss with an away game on Thursday at Asbury University. After that, the Pioneers will play again on Saturday at Alice Lloyd University.

Asbury currently sits last in the RSC West division, with Alice Lloyd standing in fourth. Neither team currently holds a record above .500 on the season.