Men's Basketball Holds Off Moravian
The Muhlenberg men's basketball team shot 62 percent from the field and never trailed in winning at Moravian, 78-62, in its last game before Winter Break.
Senior Giovanni Rubino led four Mules in double figures with 25 points, adding 6 rebounds and 5 assists, to move past 1,300 points for his career. Freshman Drew Buck and senior Luke Gordos combined to shoot 12-of-13 from the field, scoring 14 and 12 points, respectively.
Freshman Arinze Achufusi came off the bench to add 11 points.
The Mules (5-4) scored the first six points of the game and did not give up a field goal in the first five minutes. Muhlenberg eventually built a 15-point lead, 32-17, on a steal and layup by sophomore Liam Gorman with just under seven minutes left in the first half.
The Greyhounds (4-4) made a run, however, hitting three-pointers on five of seven possessions in one stretch to close to within three, 38-35, at halftime.
As it did in the first half, Muhlenberg started the second half by scoring six straight points, on a basket by sophomore Peter Stanton-Shepherd and two by Gordos, to run the lead back to nine. Moravian cut the spread to five on two separate occasions, but the Mules kept their composure against the Greyhounds' fullcourt press and never let the lead slip to less than eight in the final 12 minutes of the game.
Achufusi put the icing on the cake with about a minute left when he converted a length-of-the-court pass from Rubino into a two-handed dunk.
In addition to their hot shooting, the Mules excelled on defense, holding Moravian — which came in averaging more than 82 points per game — to 30.9-percent shooting for the game and allowing only 27 second-half points.
Stanton-Shepherd (pictured above) finished with a career-high 9 rebounds.
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