The Dickinson men’s basketball team’s bid for the Centennial Conference championship came up just short last week as the Red Devils fell to Ursinus in the first round of the tournament on Tuesday night, Feb. 20, 80-76.

The first half was made up of a series of scoring runs by each team with the host Bears taking a 36-31 lead at halftime.

The Red Devils started off the game with an early run to gain a 7-2 advantage. The Bears evened the score at 10 before classmates Moses ’18 and Jon Stenger ’18 each hit a three pointer to give Dickinson a 16-10 lead, and Ryan Devine ’21 hit another three to extend the margin to 19-12, midway through the first period.

The Bears stormed back to take a 29-28 lead thanks to a 14-5 run, just under two minutes before halftime 1:46 mark. They stretched their lead further to take a 36-31 advantage into halftime.

Ursinus continued to keep the Red Devils at arm’s length through the first half of the second period, eventually stretching their lead out to 13.

Scoring went back and forth from there, down to the final minutes as the Dickinson cut into the lead to make the score 65-63 with under six minutes left, and tied things up with a jump shot from Bryce Allen ’18 with just over three minutes remaining as Justus Melton ’18, Romocki, and Mike Hinckley ’19 kept the Red Devils in contention.

The Bears managed to pull ahead by one, 70-69, and never looked back, as each Dickinson score was matched at the other end and Urinus held on to win by four.

Hinckley led the Red Devils with 19 points, five assists and four steals while Melton recorded a double-double, tallying 18 points and 13 rebounds along with three assists. Romocki and Allen scored 15 and 13 points, respectively, and Allen put up seven assists. Stenger contributed eight points and five rebounds.

The Red Devils finish their 2017-18 season at 15-11 overall.