11/3/22            
 
CATONSVILLE, Md. -- In a game that saw 56 combined fouls, Lackawanna College men's basketball still managed to look dominant, putting three players in double-figures and holding the CCBC Catonsville Cardinals to 26% shooting for the game in a 72-44 opening night win on the road on Thursday evening.
 
The Falcons (1-0) shot just 37% from the field, but got to the line 38 times, canning 28 free throws for a 74% clip. Lackawanna was also dominant on the glass, outrebounding CCBC Catonsville (0-2) 47-to-28. Lackawanna forced 14 turnovers, scoring 13 points, and put up 30 points in the paint against the Cardinals.
 
Nasir Brown (Wilmington, DE) had a team-high 17 points in his Falcons debut, pulling down seven rebounds, while Aamir Mack (Atlantic City, NJ) also had 17 points and five rebounds. Mack was a perfect 7-for-7 from the free throw line, as was Caleb Mims (Bethlehem, PA), who scored eleven points on the night. Nashawn Johnson (Bronx, NY) scored seven points and pulled down a team-high eight rebounds on the night. The Falcons had eleven of their 13 players that saw action, score.
 
Neither team could get a bucket to go in the first two minutes, but the Cardinals got on the board at the 17:45 mark of the first half on a layup. Lackawanan College would go another 90 seconds before Rahmad Ali (Newark, NJ) canned a three-pointer to put the Falcons up 3-2 with 16:09 to go in the first. That was the first bucket of what would be a 21-0 run for the Falcons, stretching the next six minutes of game play. In fact, after their first bucket at 17:45, the Cardinals went nearly eight minutes of game time before another made basket. In that time, Caleb Mims scored five points, as did Brown and Niare Poplar (Philadelphia, PA) while Malek Mims (Bethlehem, PA) also canned a three.
 
Later in the first, a three-pointer for Catonsville cut it to 28-15, but the Falcons got back-to-back buckets from Mack and Ali, with Ali's points coming off a steal, to balloon the lead back out to 32-15. Johnson scored the last three points of the half to make it 39-20 at the break.
 
Brown scored the Falcons first six points to start the second half, snuffing out any real hope the Cardinals had to get back in the game. Catonsville didn't help itself, going another four minutes between made shots form the field, which the Falcons took advantage of to stretch the lead out to 50-25.
 
Lackawanna hit its own rough patch, going over seven minutes between made shots, but making free throws early and often kept the Falcons in front by no less than 20 points in the second half. A Mack layup at 7:34 was a part of a 10-2 Falcon run that stretched the lead out to 30 points, and a pair of Mack free throws, followed by a layup, eventually made it 68-37 with 3:41 to play. That was the last field goal the Falcons would have, but, again, they'd knock down free throws to eventually hit their winning margin.
 
Lackawanna College is back in action in Maryland, this time at CCBC Dundalk, on Saturday, November 5^th. That game is set for a 6:00pm ET tip-off at Dundalk's gymnasium.