Langhorne, PA - The Cairn Highlanders fell victim to some poor second half shooting after hanging tough with a high pressuring Neumann University on Monday night.
Box Score
The Knights of Neumann came away 71-50 victors after leading by only 7 at halftime, 40-33.
Nine different players played at least 15 minutes for Neumann, who rely heavily on a high-pressure scheme defense to wear teams down and force turnovers. Cairn's five starters played heavy minutes, with all of them getting more than 31 minutes or more of playing time.
The Highlanders'
Seth Heinicke was once again the games leading score, with 8 buckets for 19 points. Both
Charles Hopkins and
Aaron Stovall reached double-figures, with Stovall adding 14 points and Hopkins contributing 11. For Neumann, it was their points off the bench that seemed to be the difference. The Knights were able to rely on 34 bench points compared to Cairn's 4.
From the first minute of the game, the Knights either led or were at least tied with the Highlanders. Despite the high pressure and a larger number of turnovers, Cairn refused to let this game get away from them in the opening half. It wasn't until the final seconds that Neumann opened up a lead greater than 6 points. Cairn tied the game three times throughout the opening 20 minutes, and even had the game down to a one point deficit with only 1:29 to play, 30-29. But a 10-4 run from the Knights closed out the half and gave them their largest lead of the game, up to that point, 40-33.
Seven points was as close as the Highlanders would get the rest of the way. The intense pressure coming from Neumann and their deeper bench forced the Highlanders into mental mistakes, as the Knights' lead slowly grew over the final 20 minutes, evenly growing to a 21-point win at the final buzzer, 71-50.
Both teams scored fewer points in the second stanza, but Cairn saw the biggest dip in scoring. Twent-six percent shooting in the 2nd half proved too costly for Cairn as Neumann outscored the Highlanders 31-17 after the break. The Highlanders were shooting a solid 56% before halftime.
Cairn falls to 1-4 overall and 0-2 in conference play. Neumann gets their first win in the CSAC, improving to 2-3, 1-0.
The Highlanders return to the court on Wednesday when they host Rosemont College at 7pm.
