Firebirds Wither in Second Half; Can’t Withstand Warrior Comeback in 79-72 Loss

WASHINGTON, DC – Playing two men down, the Firebirds withered in the second half and were not able to withstand a Warrior comeback as visiting East Stroudsburg defeated District of Columbia, 79-72 in non-league play Saturday afternoon in the nation's capital.

Playing without injured guards Din Moore (Economics – Brooklyn, NY/Garrett College) and Michael Terry (Criminal Justice – Philadelphia, PA/Boston U), the Firebirds' starting five each played 32 minutes or more. UDC actually led by as many as nine in the first half, but was out-scored 42-32 in the second half when fatigue began to set in.

The Firebirds (0-2) were led offensively by senior guard Quasim Jones (Business Management – Philadelphia, PA/Johnson CC), who registered a game-high 23 points and four assists. Junior forward Lenjo Kilo (Biology – Silver Spring, MD/Seton Hill) nearly had his first double-double of the season with 18 points and nine rebounds, and freshman guard Reggie Sidbury (Social Work – Landover, MD/Charles Herbert Flowers HS) pitched in with 16 points and five boards.

East Stroudsburg (4-0), by contrast, utilized six reserves to out-score UDC in bench points, 28-2 on the afternoon. Eleven different players saw action for the Warriors, and eight of them entered the scoring column. Junior guard Whis Grant led the way with 18 points and five assists. Zechariah Runkle and Rasheed Moore pitched in with 11 points apiece as well.

UDC raced out to an 11-4 start in the opening four minutes of play, helped by two Ziad Ashmawy (Economics – Cairo, Egypt/American City College) baskets and a three-pointer by Sidbury. After a 30 second ESU timeout, the Warriors scored eight of the next 12 points to cut the deficit to three, 15-12 on a three-pointer by Will Brown. The Firebirds answered right back with back-to-back three-pointers by junior Prince Ritson (Psychology – Greenbelt, MD/Bowie St.) and Jones, and they had their largest lead of the game 21-12 at the 11:14 mark of the first half.

Another three-pointer by ESU's Brown would then trigger a 15-3 Warriors surge that propelled East Stroudsburg to a 27-24 advantage with 6:21 to go. ESU still led 34-32 at the 3:14 mark when two Jones free-throws helped spark an 8-0 Firebirds run over the next minute and a half to put UDC back on top by six, 40-34. A three-pointer by Grant closed the gap to three, and the Firebirds settled for a 40-37 lead at intermission.

An alley-oop dunk by the Warriors' Jamal Nwaniemeka off the pass from Grant brought the whole East Stroudsburg bench on their feet and set the tone for the remainder of the second half. ESU went on to make six of their first eight three-point shot attempts of the second half, four of which were by Grant, as the Warriors outscored UDC 34-18 in the first 11 minutes of the closing frame and took their largest lead of the afternoon, 71-58.

Trailing 75-62 with 5:13 left in regulation, the Firebirds mounted a 6-0 run to cut the lead down to seven, 75-68, but two ESU free-throws and another dunk by Nwaniemeka pushed the Warrior lead back to 11 with only 1:04 left to play. Sidbury scored the final four points of the game, including a layup with six seconds left to make the final score, 79-72.

The statistics show it was truly a tale of two halves as the Firebirds shot 50-percent (13-of-26) from the field, including a blistering 75-percent (6-of-8) from three-point range in the first half compared to ESU's 42-percent FG shooting (13-of-31) and 40-percent shooting (6-of-15) from long-range, but the Warriors out-shot UDC 59-percent (16-of-27) to 41-percent (13-of-32) from the field and made 7-of-11 from three-point range (64-percent) while the Firebirds were 0-for-3 from long range in the second half. UDC had a 36-28 rebounding advantage, but ESU had fewer turnovers (13-17) and turned the Firebirds' miscues into 19 points.

UDC is back in action on Wednesday, November 20^th when the Firebirds host non-conference foe Alderson-Broaddus at 7 p.m.