CALIFORNIA (Dec. 12) – The Vulcans trailed by as many as 23 points on Saturday afternoon before suffering an 83-72 loss to Davis & Elkins in non-conference play at Hamer Hall.
With the loss, the California University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team falls to 4-6 overall while playing its first game in Hamer Hall since Dec. 18, 2012. Meanwhile, Davis & Elkins improves to 4-4 this season after extending its winning streak to four games.
Senior
Nate Bellhy (McDonald, Pa./Fort Cherry) led the team in scoring with a season-high 15 points on 6-of-14 shooting with three treys. He also added four rebounds and four assists while playing 32 minutes in his third-straight start. Bellhy, who previously played at Washington & Jefferson, has scored in double-digits five times this year, including three times off the bench.
Fellow senior
Khalil Jabbie (Alexandria, Va./Edison) posted 11 points and five rebounds, while sophomore
Cordell Smith (Cleveland, Ohio/Shaw) totaled nine points, three assists and three steals off the bench. Senior
Josh Dombrosky (Shenandoah Heights, Pa./Shenandoah Valley) added seven points, five rebounds and two assists on Saturday.
The Senators scored the opening seven points of the game before the Vulcans mounted an 11-5 run to cut the deficit to 12-11 on a pair of free-throws by sophomore
Luka Andjusic (Belgrade, Serbia/Borislav Petrov Braca) with 13:09 left in the first half. Cal U later posted a 9-2 rally over nearly two minutes to take a 20-17 lead on a layup by Smith at the 10:43-mark. The Senators responded with a 15-4 run to reclaim the lead at 32-24 with 3:53 remaining before halftime. The teams traded three-pointers before Davis & Elkins eventually took a 41-36 lead at the break.
Over the initial two minutes of the second half, the Senators stretched the lead to 52-41 before Bellhy and Andjusic made back-to-back treys to cut the deficit to 52-47 with 17:26 left to play. However, Davis & Elkins countered with a 23-5 run to stretch its lead to a game-high 23 points, 75-52, with 7:32 remaining in the game. During the run, the Vulcans committed seven turnovers and made just one-of-eight attempts from the floor. Cal U managed to work the deficit down to 11 points, 83-72, after shooting 8-of-14 from the field over the final seven-plus minutes.
Cal U finished the game shooting 49.1 percent (28-of-57) from the floor and just 56.3 percent (9-of-16) from the free-throw line. In comparison, Davis & Elkins shot at a 50.8 clip (31-of-61) from the floor, including 47.1 percent (8-of-17) from beyond the arc. The Vulcans held with a 34-30 rebounding advantage, but committed 18 turnovers in the loss.
Junior guard Wesley Sprinkle led four players that scored in double-figures with 20 points behind four three-pointers. Freshman Kevin Simpson tallied 19 points on seven-of-eight attempts from the floor and also collected eight assists, while junior Kevin Bracy-Davis posted 17 points despite fouling out in 24 minutes.
The Vulcans return to Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) West play on Wednesday, Dec. 16, when they travel to face IUP at 7:30 p.m.
