Men's Basketball: Titans Win 75-73 in Comeback Against La Roche

NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. - The Westminster College men's basketball team came back from being down 12 points with nine minutes left in the game to win 75-73 against La Roche College inside Buzz Ridl Gymnasium Monday night. The Titans snapped a four-game skid and improved to 3-4 overall, while the Redhawks dropped to 5-5 on the year.


Tied 4-4 early in the first half, La Roche went on a 14-3 run to take an 18-7 lead with 11:47 left in the half. The Redhawks had a 21-10 lead with 9:22 on the clock, however Westminster orchestrated 12-1 run to tie it 22-22 with 4:41 remaining. The run was capped off from an alley-oop from senior Ron Martino (Youngstown, OH / Cardinal Mooney) to junior Anthony Thomas (New Castle, PA / Union) who scored on a dunk. La Roche regained the lead and led 31-26 at halftime.


La Roche had its largest lead of the game when it led 51-37 with 11:55 remaining. Down 56-44, Westminster went on a 16-4 run to tie it 60-60 with 4:24 left on the clock. The Titans took the lead, only their second of the game, when freshman Paul Carswell (Painesville, OH / Notre Dame Cathedral Latin) scored a three-pointer to give Westminster a 67-66 edge with 1:51 remaining. La Roche responded with a layup to regain the lead, however Martino scored a three that gave the Titans a 70-68 lead with 1:35 left. Westminster sealed the win as it went 5-for-6 from the charity stripe in the remaining 1:30.


Westminster senior Doug Smith (South Park, PA / South Park) scored a team-high 19 points (5-13), including 6-8 from the free throw line. Classmate Adam Carswell (Painesville, OH / Notre Dame Cathedral Latin) followed with 14 points, while Thomas and Paul Carswell added 12 points each. Martino contributed with nine points.  Adam Carswell grabbed a team-high eight rebounds.


For the game, Westminster shot 42.4% (25-59) and La Roche shot 45.0% (27-60).