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ERIE—Trailing by 17 points in the first half, the Bloomsburg University men's basketball team pulled to within one point in the second half against Gannon University. But the Golden Knights were able to pull away down the stretch and posted a 79-66 victory over the Huskies Sunday afternoon in Erie.
 
The game was tight in the early going with both team holding two point leads, along with three ties, in the opening three and-a-half minutes of play. That's when Gannon went on a 9-0 run to open a 15-6 lead at the 14:01 mark of the half.
 
After a bucket by the Huskies' Sam Saxton (York, Pa./Central York (Le Moyne)) cut the lead to seven points, Gannon used a 17-7 run to open a 32-15 lead with 8:28 to play, its biggest margin of the opening half.
 
The Huskies then put together big rally of its own started by a 3-pointer from Christian Mortellite (Hammonton, N.J./Hammonton). The long-range shot was the beginning of a 19-4 run for Bloomsburg and made it a two-point game, 36-34, at the break. Mortellite had nine points in the run with Karonn Davis (Philadelphia, Pa./Friends' Central (Niagara Univ.)) netting five points. Defensively the Huskies forced the Golden Knights in six turnovers in that stretch.
 
In the second half the Huskies closed to within a point of the home team three times. On the first possession of the half Carnell McGirt (Philadelphia, Pa./Roman Catholic (Valley Forge Military Academy)) was fouled and hit one of two free throws making it 36-35. Then with 15 minutes to go in the game Mortellite hit a 3-pointer to make it 43-42 with the third opportunity coming on a jumper by Davis that made it 45-44 with 13:20 to play.
 
From there Gannon slowly built its lead and got it to ten points, 60-50, on a layup by Gerrell Williams. After a Mortellite 3-pointer briefly put the lead back down to seven with 6:47 to go, the Golden Knights went on an 18-2 run to break open the game and lead 78-55 with 2:29 remaining.
 
Bloomsburg closed hard hitting 8-11 from the free throw line in the final two minutes to make the final 79-66.
 
The Huskies were good at protecting the ball for the game turning it over just nine times, while forcing Gannon into 21 turnovers. Bloomsburg, though, shot just 34 percent from the field for the game, while Gannon shot over 57 percent from the floor.
 
Mortellite, who went past 1,000 career points on Saturday, led the Huskies with 23 points before fouling out, while McGirt added 12 points.
 
Gannon (4-2, 3-1 PSAC) got 25 points from Matthew Dogan, while Evan Phoenix scored 16. Jimmy Berger had a double-double the hard way with 10 rebounds and 12 assists.
 
Bloomsburg (3-4, 0-4 PSAC) will play at Clarion on Dec. 10 at 3 p.m.