PHILADELPHIA – The HFU men's basketball team bounced back from an early 10-0 deficit, eventually scoring the final eight points in an 87-79 victory over Felician on Saturday afternoon at the Campus Center. 
 
Individual Highlights

• Malik Archer (Philadelphia, Pa./Mathematics,Civics & Science Charter School (Beaver County CC)) led all players with a season-best 33 points on 11-of-16 field goals and 8-of-12 3-pointers in just 30 minutes
• Tazir Cantey (Lindenwold, N.J./Eastern Regional) was second on the Tigers with 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting, while matching David Robinson Jr. (Philadelphia, Pa./Chestnut Hill Academy) with a team-high five rebounds
• Eric Esposito (Langhorne, Pa./Conwell Egan) and Aamir Hurst (Philadelphia, Pa./Neumann Goretti) both scored 13 off the bench, with Esposito making 5-of-7 field goals while leading the Tigers with a career-best six assists   
• Vernon Johnson (Teaneck, N.J./Teaneck) led all players with three steals, while Josh Thomas (Queens, N.Y./Hodgson Vo-Tech (Cecil College)) tied a game-high with two blocks

 
Inside the Box Score

• Holy Family shot a season-best 55.2 percent from the field (32-of-58), including 50.0 percent from beyond the arch (16-of-32), while dishing out a season-high 27 assists
• HFU's bench outscored the Golden Falcons' 46-21, and the Tigers held a 17-8 edge in points off turnovers

 
How it Happened 
First Half

• Felician scored the first 10 points over the opening 2:19, but HFU responded with a 15-3 run to take its only first half lead when Cantey scored his sixth straight point on a 3-pointer with 13:20 showing
• The Golden Falcons came back with the next five points, before eventually building yet another three-possession cushion, 29-36, just 3:41 ahead of the break
• The Tigers fought back to within one twice, including when Cantey's driving layup made the score 38-39 2:19 later, but Felician hit a triple for a 38-42 halftime advantage

Second Half

• The Golden Falcons opened the scoring for the first of their two second-half-high six-point leads, the second of which came 2:43 out of the locker room
• Back-to-back Archer 3-pointers capped eight straight for HFU, putting the Tigers ahead for the second time, 48-46, with 15:37 to play
• The next 15 minutes were played within five points, with six lead changes and seven ties
• Felician went up 60-65 with 9:03 remaining, but Archer would score 11 straight HFU points, including erasing the Tigers' final deficit with a triple to make the score 70-69 at the 6:08 mark
• A Johnson trifecta established a four-point cushion, 76-72, with 3:55 left, but the Golden Falcons scored four in a row to the score at 76 just 49 seconds after
• The two teams traded 3-pointers, with HFU's coming from Esposito, before Archer put the Tigers on top for good, 81-79, with 2:09 showing
• Felician would fail to score over the final 2:29, and Esposito nailed another triple to put things out of reach at 85-79 with just 49 seconds to go

 
Up Next
Holy Family takes a week off before hosting Post next Saturday at 3 p.m.