The men’s basketball team split the difference this week in their two games, defeating Carlow University at home on Tuesday before losing at No. 14 Indiana University Kokomo on Saturday.

The Pioneers’ record now stands at 13-13, .500 on the season once again, as their River State Conference (RSC) record improves to 5-7. Point Park still stands in third place in the RSC-East division.

In the first game of the week, the Pioneers took down the Carlow Celtics 105-66 at CCAC-Allegheny.

Carlow scored the first bucket of the game, but barely stood a chance after that, only mustering 29 points in the first half compared to Point Park’s 45.

The Pioneers dominated the second half on the offensive end. They were able to drop 60 in the second half, a team high in a single quarter this season.

Point Park simply outplayed Carlow in every facet, from out-shooting, rebounding and just overall domination throughout the entire game.

Junior forwards Garret McHenry and Adam Scott led the way for the Pioneers, with the duo putting up a combined 34 points and 21 rebounds.

McHenry and Scott were joined in the double-digit point club by other junior forward RJ Fairrow (16) and sophomores Kameron Shockley and Tyler Stephens (11 apiece).

“We went into the game knowing we had just lost two games and needed to get back on track of winning again,” Shockley said.

The Pioneers in total out-rebounded Carlow 51 to 21, and out-shot the Celtics as well, hitting 59-percent from the floor compared to the opponent’s 45-percent.

On Saturday, the men were defeated on the road against the No. 14-ranked IU Kokomo Cougars 86-82.

The first half was the decider in the game, as the Cougars scored 55 points in the first half compared to the Pioneers 38.

Point Park made a comeback from being down by as much as 19 in the second half, to bringing it within one in the final five minutes of play. However, the Cougars were just able to edge the Pioneers out in the dying last few minutes of the game.

“We came together and said we were going to get stops once we got a couple it turned into offense,” sophomore guard Sherron Schifino said. “Once we start scoring off our stops we had a lot of momentum and that momentum continued after we saw they were startled a little bit by it.”

Schifino was also the leading scorer for Point Park with 16 points and pulled down five rebounds.

Across the stat sheet, the game was close, with the Cougars out-shooting the Pioneers 55-percent to 48-percent from the field, and both sides shooting 39-percent from behind the arc.

Although Point Park out-rebounded IU Kokomo 40 to 27, the Cougars’ ten blocks played a massive part in their victory.

The men will have two games this week, once again a split between a home and road game.

The Pioneers will travel to Ohio to face off against the University of Rio Grande RedStorm on Tuesday. They’ll then prepare for their home matchup at CCAC-Allegheny on Saturday against the first place team in their RSC division: the WVU Tech Golden Bears. Both games are RSC match-ups, as we approach the final four games of the season.