LANGHORNE, PA – The Cairn University Men's Basketball team hosted the Blue Jays of Manor College for their home opener, Monday night, falling to the Blue Jays in the closing seconds, 77-74.
Cairn (2-1) got things started with an exclamation point, junior guard
Christian Rivera (Cayey, Puerto Rico / Central Bucks East) found senior guard
Aytor Alberto (Willemstad, Curaçao / Clarks Summit University) for an alley-oop dunk. Manor (3-2) then got off and running as they were perfect on their first five three pointers, combined with a handful of jumpers, to get ahead by 26 on the Highlanders. Six straight points from Rivera would begin to turn the tides of the Blue Jays' all-out attack and get things back under control. Senior forward
Derian Bradford (Lansdale, PA / University of Valley Forge) would score 9 of last 11 Highlander points of the half to cut the Blue Jay lead to 14, scoring his 1,000
th career point on his final jump shot of the half.
Out of the break, triples by fifth year guard
Josh Forker (Telford, PA / Faith Christian Academy) and two from Alberto cut the lead to single digits, keeping things manageable. Bradford made a jump shot of his own and found junior forward
Chris Eelman (North Haledon, NJ / Hawthorne Christian Academy) for a dunk right down Broadway, chipping away at the now 5-point lead. Manor kept clawing back as Bradford made a layup and was found by Alberto for a dunk to make it a one-possession game with four and change to go. As the Highlanders got in foul trouble, the Blue Jays knocked down their free throws to hold onto the lead. Alberto would put the game within one, knocking down a deep two with a foot on the line under pressure with three seconds left. The Highlanders would have to take a foul, leading to Manor putting themselves up three with 1.3 seconds to play. The last-second play from the far end line wouldn't be in the cards for the Highlanders as they suffered their first loss of the young season, 77-74.
Manor led all the way from first minute of the game by way of 53% (9-17) shooting from behind the arc in the first half and 38.7% from the floor on the night. Cairn was 28.6% from deep on the night and 41.2% from the field. The Blue Jays took advantage of points off turnovers and second chance points with 14 and 9, respectively.
Bradford led Cairn with another double-double, scoring his 1,000
th career point in addition to 21 points on the night while grabbing 10 rebounds and 5 assists. Alberto also got to double-digits with 20 points and seven boards, assisting four times. Forker was 2-3 from deep with 8 points
Cairn Men's Basketball heads to Brooklyn to take on St. Joseph's of Brooklyn on Monday at 7 p.m. before embarking on conference play Wednesday night at home.
