INDIANAPOLIS - The Marian men's basketball team saw their undefeated start to the campaign come to an end on Saturday afternoon, as the Knights fell short of a comeback in an 81-79 loss against No. 21 Indiana Wesleyan. Marian trailed by 21 points at the half, and rallied back within one before falling short. The Knights are now 10-1 on the season and 3-1 in league play.
Indiana Wesleyan owned the first half against the Knights, as they jumped out to a 10-4 lead by the first media timeout. The Wildcat advantage increased to 12 points over the next four minutes, as the Marian offense struggled to find a rhythm. Maximus Gizzi brought the deficit down to six points as the clock rolled to 11 minutes, but the Wildcats surged back in front with a 7-0 run to take a 13-point lead. Indiana Wesleyan continued to grow their lead as the offense failed to produce an answer, and with 2:20 remaining in the half Javan Buchanan drained a transition three to push the visiting lead to 24. Marian would get three points back to the ledger before the break, as they trailed 49-28 at intermission.
Slowly, the Knights aimed to erase their halftime deficit as they came back out of the locker rooms, and got a good start with Luke Gohmann and Hayden Langkabel each draining a three. Taeshon Cherry and Christian Harvey got to the rim on consecutive possessions to continue to trim the score, and two more three's from Langkabel and Cherry cut the deficit to 10 by the media timeout. Marian continued to attack as a three-point play from Cherry brought them within seven with 14:33 to play, but the Knights were unable to get the score to two possessions as Spencer Piercefield and Seth Maxwell held the lead at 10.
Marian trailed 59-49 with 12:00 to play in the game, and played back and forth with the Wildcats over the next four minutes. IWU increased their lead to 14 points in the stretch, but Marian stayed composed and kept attacking, getting scores from Cherry, Harvey, and Luke Heady to stay at 10 points. Marian made their run trailing by 12 with 4:30 to play, getting a quick five points from Cherry and Harvey to make it a seven-point contest. The senior duo continued to attack, and with 1:50 remaining the Knights had cut their deficit to four points.
Trailing 74-70, the Knights allowed IWU to push their lead back to six on a Piercefield layup, but a pair of three's from the Knights answered a Buchanan score to make it a two-point game. Marian got a stop on the defense and set up a chance for a last second shot, but with nine seconds remaining the Knights turned the ball right back to IWU off an inbound play. IWU would make a pair of free throws to push the lead to four, but with 1.1 seconds remaining Marian made a last-ditch effort as Cherry banked in a three. After fouling the Wildcats and allowing a free throw, the Knights were left with 0.5 seconds to play, but couldn't complete the full court pass as they fell 81-79.
Cherry scored 29 points in the losing effort, while Harvey finished with a career-high 25 points. Gohmann grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds, while Cherry led the Knights in steals with three. Marian finished the game shooting 50 percent from the field after shooting 35 in the first half, and held Indiana Wesleyan 15 percent worse from the field than they were at the break.
Marian will finish their home stand on Monday night when they host Saint Mary of the Woods at 7 p.m.
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