BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Moravian College men's basketball team concluded the 2013-14 season on a high note, beating The Catholic University of America, 78-71, and getting major contributions from its three departing players on Senior Day on Saturday in Johnston Hall.
The Greyhounds (12-13, 6-8 Landmark) needed a win, and some help, to qualify for the Landmark Conference Tournament. Moravian took care of its business, but with Juniata College beating Drew University, a three-way tie for the fourth and final seed was created and The United States Merchant Marine Academy won the tiebreaker.
Comparing all tied teams' records against other conference opponents in descending order, USMMA and Juniata went 1-1 against The University of Scranton, while Moravian is 0-2 and finishes sixth in the standings. Restarting the process for USMMA and Juniata with the first criteria, head-to-head, USMMA went 2-0 against Juniata, therefore USMMA is the No. 4 seed, while Juniata finishes fifth.
In the season finale, seniors Cameron Cullen, Blake English and Kenny Gula were three of five Greyhounds in double-figures on Saturday. Cullen led all scorers with 17 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the floor, and added five rebounds to finish his career with 512, tied for 11th all-time in school history.
English also made a bit of history on Saturday, recording four blocks to give him 59 for the season, a new school record for a single year. The senior had already broken the school record in career blocks and will graduate atop the list with 180. English added 15 points (5-of-6 FG) and six rebounds in the victory over the Cardinals.
Gula tossed in 10 points and grabbed four rebounds to conclude his 88-game career in the Blue and Grey.
"They were ready to play and were feeling the energy early," head coach Jim Walker said of his seniors. "All three of them had excellent offensive games. By one playing well, it created space for the other. They couldn't double anyone, because someone else would hurt them. It's nice to see them accomplish this on a day dedicated to them."
The Cardinals led once at 8-7 only 2:23 into the contest, but it was all Moravian after that point. English took the lead back with a layup, which started a 10-3 Greyhound run. Cullen made back-to-back layups and sophomore forward Jarrod Dilts made his first of four three pointers in the first half.
Two more treys, one by Gula and one by sophomore forward Nate Samanns, helped the Greyhounds take their biggest lead of the game at 36-24 with six minutes to play in the opening half. As a team, Moravian shot 36 percent (9-of-25) from three-point land.
"We've been on the short end of the three-point shooting all year," Walker said. "It was nice to have that push us out to the early lead. It's disappointing that we played as well as we did today, and still missed the playoffs. It's a tough situation. We created the situation ourselves, particularly by not winning home games that we could have won. At the end of the year, I feel we were playing as well as anybody."
Moravian took a 42-33 lead into halftime.
English kept the momentum on the Moravian end with a fast break lay-in, assisted by Dilts, to open the second half scoring. The Cardinals would put together a brief 4-0 run, but Gula silenced the spurt with his second three-pointer of the game.
Catholic would eventually creep closer and trailed by just two at 52-50 with 12:27 remaining after a Corey Stanford successful three-point play. The Cardinals continued to chip away and took a 61-60 lead five minutes later.
The Greyhounds swiftly responded with a 6-0 run spurred by a Cullen jumper, a Dilts fast break started by junior point guard Izel Dickerson and capped by two free throws from English.
The Cardinals again chipped away and tied the game for the fifth time on Saturday at 69-69 with 2:22 showing on the clock. Cullen again came up with the answer as his final bucket as a Greyhound gave him team the lead for good with 1:54 left.
Catholic fouled Dickerson three times down the stretch and the team's leading free throw shooter was true from the charity stripe, hitting 6-of-6 to maintain and stretch the lead to 78-71.
The score would go final after a Cardinals' three-point attempt was blocked by Dilts with one second left.
