ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Roberts Wesleyan College men's basketball team staged a valiant comeback but came up just short, falling 87-84 to Molloy College in an East Coast Conference game on Senior Day at the Voller Athletic Center.
The Redhawks (11-10, 9-7) trailed 70-51 with11:32 to play before rallying to take an 80-79 lead on a 3-point shot by Eric Lewis with 3:02 to play. Molloy (8-8, 9-16) regrouped and outscored Roberts 8-4 the rest of the way.
"We just made too many mistakes and put ourselves in a position where we had to make a large comeback," Roberts coach Mark Saladzius said. "They made more plays than we did."
Sophomore Ja'Kair Sanchez scored 20 points to lead Roberts and Abou Gbane added 19 points in 23 minutes off the bench. Gbane and Amari Lee both grabbed seven rebounds while Amari Lee also contributed 13 points, 4 assists and 3 steals.
"All in all it was a hard-fought game," Lee said. "We had some plays that we messed up early and it cost us the game."
Roberts, which was playing its fourth game in seven days, built a 12-point lead in the first 12 minutes of the game before the Lions finished the first half on a 25-12 run to take a 41-40 lead at intermission.
Roberts took a 42-41 lead on a jump shot by Sanchez 19 seconds into the second half before Molloy went on a 29-9 run to set the stage for Roberts' comeback.
"We go into every game thinking that we are going to win," Lee said. "We just had the mindset that we would chip away and chip away and we did, we just didn't come away with the win."
The Redhawks honored senior guards Shane Fanning and Eimantas Gudkovas in a pregame ceremony. Gudkovas scored five points in the first half and Fanning battled foul trouble and finished with three.
With a makeup game on Tuesday, the Redhawks will try to put this game behind them quickly.
"We can watch film and learn from it," Saladzius said.
Roberts, which earned ECC victories over the University of the District of Columbia, Queens College and the College of Staten Island this week, can also build off of its second-half surge.
"I think it says that we have resilience," Saladzius said. "I think it says a lot about our depth because we had some guys come in and make some plays and I think it says that we got some good shots but just didn't make them. We fought hard and that's what we want to do."
Roberts made 33 of 75 shots (44%) from the field, but was ­only 13-for-37 (35.1%) from 3-point land. Roberts also lost a close decision to Molloy, 86-80,on Jan. 23.
The Redhawks travel to Queens College for a 5 p.m. matchup on Tuesday before closing out the regular season at Bridgeport at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 26.