Men's Basketball
11/03/2007 - Men Start 0-2, Fall to Dominican and Holy Names
Riverside, CA- Hope International opened the 2007-2008 season on the road at the Lancer Classic in Riverside, CA. They lost to Dominican (70-60) on Friday and fell to Holy Names (77-75) on Saturday. Junior Marko Torovic scored a combined 44 points in the two games.
To open the season on Friday, Hope (0-1) squared off with Dominican (1-0). Things started out for the Royals on a good note as they jumped out 8-2 before the seats were warm. Torovic and Junior Arron Boone had 4 points each. The rest of the first half featured 11 lead changes and 7 ties with the Penguins taking a 30-27 halftime lead on a late second 3 pointer by Michael Wells.
Unfortunately, the Royals only saw the lead again two more times in the second half.
The Royals out shot the Penguins from the field, 44% to 39%, but were dramatically out shot from the free throw line- 75% to 44%. The free throw shooting proved to be the difference in the 70-60 win for the Penguins.
Torovic finished the game with 21 points while Boone knocked down 11 points.
On Saturday, game two of the season saw the Royals go head-to-head with Holy Names. Again Hope jumped out to early lead (12-11), only to see the Hawks come back to take the lead at halftime, 39-37.
The Royals never regained the lead though they did tie up score 75 all with 33 seconds to play.
Four Royals finished the game in double figures with Torovic leading the way with 23 points (along with 12 rebounds). Senior Travis Hardeman had 14. Sophomore Boran Rajcic dropped in 11 points while Senior Aron Cline finished with 10.
Josh Dozier lead the charge for Holy Names (1-3) with 17 points and 7 rebounds. Paul Conyers and Troy Cotton helped out with 15 and 14 points respectively.
With the 77-75 loss, the Royals fell to 0-2.