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Gensic's 3-point swish a welcome sight for Cougar fans
 Sat., Feb. 22, 2003

Cougars return to Marian in 1st round of MCC Tournament

   FORT WAYNE – University of Saint Francis sophomore John Gensic had a lot of company after the sophomore hit the bulls-eye with a 3-pointer with 22 seconds to play in an 88-84 win over Goshen College on Saturday afternoon.

   “Thank goodness,” was Gensic’s first thought after his lone 3-point basket spun sharply into the twine. “It felt good.”

    And it made the Cougar fans feel better after they had watched USF (14-18, 4-10 Mid-Central Conference)  lead by as many as 16 points in the second half only to have GC charge back to take an 84-83 lead with 35 seconds to play.

    USF turns its attention to MCC Tournament first-round action with a trip to Indianapolis to play Marian College on Wednesday (Feb. 26) at 7 p.m. But  the Cougars took a few minutes to honor seniors Jontae James and Eric Pickrell before the game and with a potluck meal after the narrow win.

  “It’s great to finally win a game like this,” Pickrell said. “It’s a big relief because we sure didn’t want to lose our final home game. We stuck together and pulled it out. We’d like to keep it rolling into the tournament.”

    “It was very important to find a way to win since we’ve struggled to win close games like this,” Gensic said.

     James finished with 16 points and three assists for USF. His three assists moved him up to No. 2 on the USF career list with 460 tying him with Ben Meyer. The other USF double-figure scorers were underclassmen led by sophomore Chase Holden, who scored 11 of his team-leading 19 points in the second half. Freshman Dusty Beucler added 15 points, 12 in the second half, and freshman Zach Beiswanger finished with 11 points and a USF-leading five rebounds.

    USF never trailed in the first half, leading by as many as 10 points twice, the last time at 39-29 with 1:52 to play. GC closed with a 9-0 run to trail 39-38 at the half.

    “We did a good job building a lead, then let it slip to one by the half,” USF Coach Jeff Rekeweg noted. “We still not mature enough to handle prosperity, but I’m glad we came back and won.”

     The Cougars rebuilt their lead with some inside-outside teamwork between Beiswanger and Holden.

     “Zach got me some nice feeds inside when they tried to double him on the perimeter,” Holden said.

    A Beiswanger to Holden connection gave USF a 56-40 lead, one of four 16-point leads for the Cougars in the next four minutes. Beucler gave USF its last 16-point bulge hitting two free throws with 10:35 to play. From that point GC outscored USF 32-15 and took its first lead of the game, 80-79, with 1:56 to play on two free throws by Tyler Sheerer.

   Sophomore Nick Ankenbruck fired in a 3-pointer restoring USF’s lead, 82-80, but  Jeremy High tied the game at 82 with a basket at the 1:10 mark. James in the first of two free throw attempts, missed the second. Gensic rebounded the miss, but had the ball stolen and Mark Wenclewicz hit two free throws with 35 second to give GC an 84-83 lead to set up Gensic’s shot.

    After Gensic gave USF the lead on a trademark James lane slash and pass, High missed a forced 3-pointer and Beucler tracked down the miss and was fouled. He connected on both free throws with seven seconds left assuring the USF win after four ties and four lead changes.

   “I thought after John hit that 3-pointer, we had one of our best defensive stops of the season,” Rekeweg said. “Goshen did what they had to do to get back in the game and we didn’t respond well until the last two plays of the game. It felt good to execute in a tough situation.”

     GC outscored USF 23-16 at the free-throw line, 27-24 from 3-point range, 9-4 on second chance points, but USF outscored GC 18-8 off turnovers and 26-22 off the bench.

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