Kohler's 27 Points and Strong Second Half Push Men's Basketball to 90-81 Victory Over Felician
Box Score
RUTHERFORD, N.J. (December 10, 2012) – It was a tale of two halves at Job Gym as the LIU Post men's basketball team, sparked by 27 points off the bench by senior guard
Jonathan Kohler (Bordentown, N.J.), used a stellar second half to propel themselves to a 90-81 victory over Felician College on Monday evening.
The Pioneers win their fourth straight after an 0-3 start to the season, as they improve to 4-3 overall, while Felician goes to 4-5.
The game got off to a fast start as the scoring was evenly matched through the first 10 minutes of play, which saw the Pioneers hold a 12-8 advantage following a trey by senior guard
Tobin Carberry (Hamden, Conn.), only to watch the Golden Falcons respond by taking a 15-14 lead.
Three lead changes and two ties later, the hosts took the lead and made it a five-point contest. The Pioneers kept the lead minimal, trailing 24-21 with 7:50 to play in the half, but Felician went on a 9-0 spurt over the next minute of play that put the visitors in a double-digit hole, 33-21.
The Pioneers were able to trim the deficit to seven, trailing 41-34 with 3:26 on the clock, but Felician scored the last five points of the half to open up a 12-point lead at the break.
The second half saw the Pioneers' struggles continue, as Felician led by as many as 18 points (55-37 with 17:07 on the clock). But staring at the almost 20 points deficit, the Pioneers put in four bench players including senior Kohler along with two freshmen, who seemed to energize the visitors. From that point until the halfway mark of the second half, the Pioneers embarked on a 24-4 run, with Kohler scoring eight in a row, and reversed the deficit into a 61-59 lead, their first since early in the first half.
The Golden Falcons responded with a jumper at 11:18 to tie it a 61 apiece, but Kohler hit two free throws and a three-pointer to reclaim the lead and make it 66-61 with 9:55 left. The Pioneers would not relinquish the lead, slowly ballooning their advantage to double digits and leading by as many as 12 points, 81-69, with 3:40 to play. Felician did cut it down to just seven points with 1:45 left in the game, but the Pioneers hit 8-of-8 free throw attempts down the stretch to cement the win.
After shooting just 31.6% in the first half (12-38), the Pioneers shot a much better 53.6% in the second half ((15-28) to finish at 40.9% for the game. After a painful 4-16 performance in the first half from downtown, the Pioneers scaled down to a more efficient 3-5 in the second half. They finished with a 45-41 edge on the glass, with a 17-11 assist-turnover line, while forcing 15 Felician miscues and scoring 19 points off of them.
Kohler's strong performance fueled an impressive effort by the Pioneer bench, which outscored Felician's bench 34-15. Kohler was 7-13 from the floor, 3-6 from behind the arc, and 10-11 from the charity stripe. Close behind with a 20-point effort of his own was Carberry. Junior
Vaughn Allen (Mount Vernon, N.Y.) scored 5 points, and sophomore
Tyuan Williams (Newark, N.J) chipped in with 10 points. Senior guard
Billy Butler (Elmont, N.Y.) handed out 10 assists.
Antoine Obery led the Golden Falcons with 20 points, while Anthony D. Green added 19.
Next time out for the Pioneers in a Sunday afternoon contest against Bloomfield, starting at 3:30 p.m.