Despite a career-high Pioneer performance, Point Park men’s basketball fell on the road to Tiffin, 84-77, on Sunday at the Gillmor Student Center in Tiffin, Oh.
Senior captain Aidan Anderson led all scorers with a career-high 28 points, recording seven in the first half and tallying an impressive 21 in the second.
“Really dialing in on film – studying what the defense is running and also understanding the sets they like to run [and] what actions they’re looking for – is what really helped me,” Anderson said. “My teammates played a big part in being able to find me and set up open shots.”
The teams came to a tie with 18:16 remaining in the game, only for the Dragons to score six-straight points in the paint for a steady single-digit lead through the remainder of regulation.
While Anderson’s standout performance kept Point Park within striking distance, Tiffin’s dominance in the paint and frequent trips to the free-throw line secured the Dragons’ victory.
The Pioneers combined for 25 fouls, sending Tiffin to the line 19 times to score a pivotal 28 points.
“We were much more aggressive defensively, but I still thought we were just not quite as smart as we could have been, and that we got a little too close,” coach Ryan Grandits said.
On the other end of the court, the Pioneers posted a determined offense after halftime, scoring 45 points and shooting an improved 61% from the field. The Dragons recorded 47 points in the second half with 52% success from the field.
“That was the hardest we played all year,” Grandits said. “So it’s definitely something we’ve been getting better at.”
Leading Point Park scorers include sophomore Grant Welch and senior Jaylen Stewart, contributing 15 and 10 points, respectively.
This season marks a new era for Point Park basketball under first-year head coach Grandits, who arrived after eight seasons as lead assistant coach at Daemen University, one of the nation’s highest-ranked Division II men’s basketball teams. Grandits is joined by an entirely new staff, including long-time colleague Joe Long as an assistant coach.
“I trust his game plan every time I step on the floor, and [I’m] always looking for leadership or what to do when certain situations occur, and he delivers,” Anderson said.
To add to the new coaching staff, Point Park welcomes 14 newcomers to the team to join four returning teammates in Anderson, junior captain Kaden Warner, senior Rob Keys and graduate student Brendan Williams.
“I feel like we are progressing as a team as the games go on,” Anderson said. “We are still freshly a new team, with only 4 returners, we’re still trying to build that chemistry as much as possible.”
The team voted Anderson, Warner and senior transfer Greg Williams as team captains.
“[Anderson’s] very steady,” Grandits said. “You kind of know what you’re getting with Aiden every single day. And he’s more of a lead-by-example kind of guy.
No players remain from the 23-24 campaign that led to a River States Conference title in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), before the university transitioned to NCAA Division II athletics in the Mountain East Conference in 2024-25.
The Pioneers concluded their inaugural MEC season with an overall record of 11-19 and a conference record of 4-16, advancing to the MEC Quarterfinals. Warner led the team in scoring last season with 398 points, averaging 14.2 points per game.
“Having a full year of experience against conference opponents will be a huge advantage,” Anderson said. “We now understand the pace, physicality, and styles of play that different teams bring, which allows us to prepare more.”
The team enters this season 0-3 after three consecutive losses against Division II non-conference opponents.
“We’ve been really trying to figure out how to put the pieces together, kind of on the fly,” Grandits said. “So we’ve definitely been focusing more on just playing with more intensity, playing harder, especially defensively.”
The MEC Preseason Poll projected Point Park in the 10th-place spot out of 11 teams, voted by the conference’s 11 head coaches.
Point Park kicks off conference play this evening versus Wheeling in Wheeling, W. Va. The team’s home opener takes place on Saturday, Dec. 13, against Davis and Elkins at 4 p.m. in the CCAC-Allegheny Gym.
