BROOKLYN, N.Y. – For the second-straight home game, the Pratt Institute men's basketball team shaved a double-digit deficit into a one-posession game before falling 74-62 to Cairn University on Monday night at the Activity Resource Center.
Junior Ace Bibbs led Pratt (1-7) with 16 points on 6-for-12 shooting, also grabbing three boards and dishing out two assists. Sophomore Cameron Hatcher added 14 points with sevn caroms and three dimes. First-year Sebastion Roda chipped in a season-high 12 points while grabbing a team-high eight rebounds and two assists off the bench. Junior Patrick O'Gorman contributed nine points, three rebounds and four assists.
Cairn (4-2) was led by Mizz Nyagwegwe's 18 points and Deria Bradford followed with 16. The visitors maintained a 45 to 38 percent shooting edge for the contest.
The opening 20 saw a balanced offense from Pratt with Roda scoring eight off the bench and O'Gorman and Hatcher netting seven each, but the visitors scored the game's first bucket and never trailed. Pratt kept them within reach as they never were able to extend to a double-digit advantage.
The Highlanders pushed their 36-28 halftime lead into double digits early in the second half and stretched it to 15, 52-37, just over six minutes in. But after facing their largest deficit, the Cannoneers responded with 14 unanswered – Bibbs scoring seven points in the spurt – and Roda's fast-break bucket pulling the black-and-gold within one, 52-51, prompting a Highlander timeout with 8:25 to play.
But the Cannoneers couldn't overtake the Highlanders and the visitors later used a 9-0 run to pull away for good.
Pratt steps away from the ARC and heads to the Keystone State on Wednesday, November 30 to take on University of Valley Forge with an 8 p.m. start.
