PHILADELPHIA – Trailing by double-digits in the first half, the HFU men's basketball team fought back to establish a nine-point cushion of their own in the second half before Jefferson eventually held on for an 82-88 win on Tuesday night. 
 
Down 36-43 at the half, the Tigers chipped away to within a single possession, 41-44, on a Vernon Johnson (Teaneck, N.J./Teaneck) 3-pointer 1:29 into the second, before knotting the score at 46-46 on a Tazir Cantey (Lindenwold, N.J./Eastern Regional) layup with 16:56 showing. 
 
Holy Family then took their first lead, 49-48, on Ethan Pires' (Dover, Del./The Pennington School (Millersville University)) 3-pointer less than one minute later.
 
Aside from two ties, another Johnson triple at the 15:32 mark put HFU on top for the next 11+ minutes, with the Tigers going ahead as many as nine, 71-62, when a Jake McGonigle (Ocean City, N.J./Wildwood Catholic) trifecta completed an 8-2 flurry with 8:33 to play.
 
Jefferson evened the score at 75-75 with 4:50 left, and regained the lead 29 seconds after, but an Aamir Hurst (Philadelphia, Pa./Neumann Goretti) 3-pointer put HFU back on top 78-77 with 4:02 remaining. 
 
That was the Tigers' final lead though, as it took the Rams just 18 seconds to respond.
 
Trailing 78-83 entering the final minute and a half a Cantey layup made it a single-poesssion deficit one final time, but a Jefferson offensive rebound and ensuring triple with just 27 to go put the game out of reach.
 
 
Individual Highlights

• Hurst poured in a season-best 22 points on 7-of-10 field goals, 5-of-6 3-pointers and 3-of-4 free throws
  • He led all players with a career-best two blocks and matched David Robinson Jr. (Philadelphia, Pa./Chestnut Hill Academy) with a team and season-high five rebounds
• Pires and Cantey added 14 and 13 points, respectively
• Johnson contributed nine points on 3-of-3 3-pointers
• Jason Shields (Scranton, Pa./Scranton (Jefferson University)) led HFU with a career-best four assists 

 
Inside the Box Score

• Holy Family connected on 17-of-32 3-pointers, 53.1 percent, both its second highest total and percentage of the season
• Jefferson only made seven triples but sunk 10 more foul shots, 9-19, and outscored the Tigers 22-42 in the paint

 
How it Happened
First Half

• The Rams scored the first five points and led throughout the first, despite HFU getting as close as one twice, including when a Hurst layup made it 8-9 4:05 in
• The Rams took the first three-possession advantage, 18-25, midway through the half before eventually going up by double-digits, 24-34, entering the final six minutes
• Jefferson was up by as many as 11, 26-37, 3:40 ahead of the break, but Hurst tallied eight of the 10 points in a 10-4 surge that cut the deficit to 36-41 in the final minute
• The Rams ended the half with a dunk for a seven-point cushion, 36-43, going into the locker room 

 
Up Next
Holy Family hosts Bridgeport on Saturday at 3 p.m. as part of Alumni Day.