BOX SCORE


Philadelphia, Pa. - The Holy Family University men's basketball team had three players score in double-figures, including sophomore Eric Fleming (Philadelphia, Pa./Archbishop Ryan) who scored a career-high 19 points as the Tigers defeated Molloy College by the score of 79-71 in a non-conference contest Friday night at the Campus Center.
 
Holy Family improves to 2-1 overall with the win, while Molloy suffers its first loss of the young season and falls to 2-1.
 
Fleming led a trio of players that scored in double-figures for the Tigers with 19 points.  The sophomore came off the bench and finished the game shooting 7-of-10 from the field, including a career-high 5-of-8 from beyond the arc.
 
Sophomore Richard Council (New York, N.Y./Rice) finished with 14 points after shooting 5-of-6 from the field.  He also grabbed six rebounds.  Junior Ervin Ezell (Deptford, N.J./Deptford High) added 16 points as he converted ten of his 12 free throw attempts.  Ezell also had seven rebounds, six assists and seven steals for the Tigers.
 
Holy Family opened the game on a 21-10 run over the first 12:06 minutes of the first half to take control of the game early.  Fleming drained one of his career-high five three-pointers at the 12:06 mark to give the Tigers their biggest lead of the game thus far of 12 points.
 
However, Molloy began chipping away at the Tigers' lead and used a 15-4 run over the next six-plus minutes to tie the game at 25-25.  Junior John Petrucelli, who finished with 20 points, scored a layup at the 6:27 mark to tie the game.
 
Both teams battled back and forth the final minutes of the half as Holy Family eventually came away with a 41-38 halftime lead.
 
In the second half, Holy Family came out of the locker room firing as the Tigers used an 8-3 run to start the half and increase their lead to 49-40 after sophomore Richard Council (New York, N.Y./Rice) converted a pair of free throws at the 17:30 mark.
 
Holy Family would go on to increase its lead to as many as 16 points after a layup basket by Ezell made the score 62-46 at the midway point of the half. 
 
Despite the large deficit Molloy came fighting back as the Lions nearly erased the Tigers' 16-point lead.  Molloy used a 20-6 run over a 7:29 minute span to come within two points of Holy Family's lead.  A three-pointer by Petrucelli made the score 68-66 with 2:20 left to play in regulation.
 
After the Molloy run, Holy Family responded and maintained its lead the rest of the way.  The Tigers closed out the game on an 11-5 run, including seven straight points at one point to secure the victory.
 
Senior Angel Ayala (Allentown, Pa./William Allen) and junior Alberto Munoz (Morrisville, N.C./Cardinal Gibbons) each scored nine points for the Tigers. 
 
As a team, Holy Family shot nearly 80.0-percent from the free throw line after converting 23-of-29 attempts.
 
For Molloy, sophomore Matt McLeod led the team with 21 points off the bench.  McLeod shot 7-of-9 from the field as well as 6-of-9 from the free throw line.  He also recorded six rebounds and four assists to go along with three steals.  
 
Holy Family is back in action tomorrow as the Tigers host UMass Lowell in a non-conference contest.  Game time is slated for 5:30 p.m.