BOCA RATION, Fla. -- Cold shooting, particularly at the start of the second half, doomed the MIner basketball team Thursday evening as it dropped a 65-51 decision to Barry in the Pepsi/Doubletree Suites Classic at Lynn University.
The Miners trailed 33-31 at halftime, but missed their first 11 shots and 13 of their first 14 after the intermission, which allowed Barry to expand its lead to 39-31 before Andrew James hit a free throw to stop the run at the 15:39 mark.
After Justin Taylor hit two more free throws to cut the lead to five, the Buccaneers built their lead into double figures for the first time at the 13:23 mark on a fast break layup by Bryan Chiverton.
UMR did not make a shot from the floor in the first 9:37 of the second half unitl Taurance Townsel tipped in a miss.
The Miners got to within eight when Aaron Hays hit a three-pointer with 7:46 to play, then were within nine with 5:54 left after Curtis Mosley made a steal and took it the distance for a layup. However, that was as close as UMR would get down the stretch.
The Miners had leads on several occasions in the opening half, taking an early 8-4 lead on a tip-in by James a little over five minutes into play. A basket by Marquis Jones on his first shot of the season -- he had missed the first eight games with an injury -- gave UMR a 12-11 lead during a stretch where the teams swapped the lead a number of times.
UMR went back up by four on two Justin Taylor free throws with 6:47 left in the half, but the Buccaneers made an 11-4 run over the span of 2:04 to go up by three. A three-pointer by Taylor tied the game, then another three by Hays gave UMR a 29-28 lead with 2:59 to go in the half.
Barry scored five straight to retake the lead before a Townsel basket got the score to the halftime margin of two.
Townsel posted a double-double for the Miners with 13 points and 10 rebounds for the Miners, but UMR shot just 25.9 percent in the second half and 31.7 percent for the game. The Miners made only four of their 25 three-point attempts.
Taylor finished in double figures with 11 points and Hays scored eight for the Miners (3-6), who will face Lynn Friday at 6 p.m. (Central time) to wrap up the pre-holiday schedule.
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