Meiner Named to DeSales All-Tournament Team as Men’s Basketball Closes 2016 Falling to Juniata

CENTER VALLEY, Pa. — The St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) men's basketball team led for most of the first half, but leaves Pennsylvania empty-handed dropping a 65-54 decision to Juniata College in the consolation of the Al Senavitis Memorial Tournament on Friday evening.

Freshman Kavan Meiner had 10 points with six rebounds and earned a spot on the All-Tournament team.

The Basics

• Final Score: Juniata 65, St. Joseph's 54
• Records:  Juniata (7-4) St. Joseph's (2-8)
• Location: Center Valley, Pa.
• Arena: Billera Hall
• SJC Starters: Willis (G), Giles (G), St. Etheart (F), Parra (F), Meiner (F)

Turning Point

• Juniata used a 13-0 run late in the first half to take their second lead of the game and never trailed again. A 10-1 run midway through the second built a 10-point cushion and St. Joseph's couldn't get any closer than six.

How it Happened

• After Dennis Fisher opened the scoring for Juniata, St. Joseph's used a 10-0 spurt powered by Joseph Idyahia and Alec Willis trifectas and a pair of Kavan Meiner jumpers to take an early eight-point lead.
• The Bears held the lead for most of the first half, and matched their largest separation of eight again on a Christian Giles three-point play with 4:32 before the break. But the Eagles followed with 13 unanswered and closed the opening half on a 16-6 run to take a 33-31 lead into the lockers.
• St. Joseph's tied the game twice early in the second stanza on Meiner and Stephane Etheart buckets but never took back the lead. After a Giles layup cut the deficit to one, 40-39, a 10-1 run over 3:51 aided by three SJC miscues, helped Juniata run out to a double-digit advantage.
• After bringing the deficit back to single digits momentarily, a 10-0 outburst ballooned the Bears deficit to double figures for good.

For the Bears

• Kavan Meiner shot an efficient 5-of-6 from the field for 10 points, also pulling down a team-high six boards and swiping a steal. The freshman was named to the All-Tournament Team for his efforts.
• Freshman Dimitri Sirakis led the Bears with 13 points on 5-of 11 shooting with two rebounds.
• Senior Christian Giles chipped in seven points and dished out six assists.
• Freshman Stephane Etheart made his second straight start and chipped in six points and four caroms.

Inside the Box Score

• The Bears managed just 32 percent shooting from the floor (21-65) while the Eagles connected at a 39 percent rate (23-59).
• After both teams connected on five three pointers each over the opening 20, both squads struggled to find the range shooting a combined 1-for-18 in the second half (SJC 0-11).
• The Eagles held a small 39-38 edge on the boards and both teams remained relatively close on paint scoring (24-24), points off turnovers (20-16 JC) and second-chance scoring (11-10 JC).
• Brandon Martinazzi led three in double-figures for Juniata and all scorers with 15 points.

The Bear Facts

• It was the first meeting ever between the two schools.

Next up for St. Joseph's

The Bears return home to The Hill Center for the highly anticipated annual rivalry matchup against sibling rivals St. Joseph's (Long Island) on Wednesday, January 4th. The Skyline Conference South Division tilt will headline a doubleheader with the women and tip off at approximately 7 p.m. Live stats and video with Michael Kerr calling the action will be available on SJCBears.com.