The men’s basketball team came out strong but weren’t able to keep the momentum up against River States Conference (RSC) rival Indiana University East on Thursday, Nov. 2, falling to the Red Wolves 92-87. The loss drops the Pioneers to 2-7 on the season, as the team still searches for their first conference win on the season and falls to 0-3 for in conference play. The team will look to bounce back next weekend at home against Ohio Valley University on Saturday, Dec. 11, in another RSC match up.

In the road matchup in Richmond, Indiana, the Pioneers came out hot to start off the game. With senior forward Adam Scott scoring the first bucket, Point Park never looked back in the first half, leading by as much as 10 and putting up a strong 51 points as the first half came to a close. The Red Wolves would try to keep stride though, never letting the score get too out of hand and putting up 43 in the first half to keep it an eight point game heading into the half. IU East would come out firing in the second half though, coming out immediately to change an 11 point deficit into a one point lead in only a matter of five minutes. The next 10 minutes of play would be a close back and forth match up, with neither team being able to get ahead by more than four. The Red Wolves would take a two point lead with three minutes to go and would hold that lead until the final buzzer sounded, winning out 92-87 in a heartbreaker for the Pioneers.

It was a fairly efficient night for the Pioneers, hitting on 59% of their shots in the contest, as well as knocking down 47% of their three pointers and making 92% of their shots from the charity stripe. In comparison, the Red Wolves also shot a steady 57% from the field but struggled from beyond the arc with only 29% of their shots being drained, and only making 65% of their shots from the charity stripe. The Pioneers also came up big with the rebounds as well, outboarding IU East 35 to 21 and pulling down almost double the Red Wolves’ offensive rebounds. What ended up doing in the Pioneers in the end was turnovers. Point Park gave up a rough 16 turnovers in comparison to the Red Wolves six. IU East was able to convert 26 points off of turnovers alone, compared to the Pioneers six points scored off turnovers.

Senior guard Sherron Schifino led the way for the Pioneers in scoring, putting up a game high 24 points, as well as snatching five rebounds and team high two steals. He would shoot 9-for-16 from the floor as well. Adam Scott would tally another double double to his name, scoring 21 points while bringing down 12 rebounds, including seven offensive rebounds. Junior guard Eddie Flohr also scored 18 points on 8-for-12 shooting, while also bringing in four rebounds.

The Pioneers will get another shot at their first RSC win on the season on Saturday, Dec. 11, with a home match up against the Ohio Valley University Fighting Scots. They’ll then have another home match up against RSC and cross city rival Carlow University on Monday, Dec. 13. The final game of December for the Pioneers will take place on Saturday, Dec. 18, where Point Park will be on the road with another RSC bout against Ohio Christian University. Both Saturday games will take place at 1 p.m., while the Monday game will be at 7:30 p.m. Both home games will be streamable through the Point Park athletics website for fans to watch.