Emporia, Kan. – The Friends University Falcons put together a competitive outing in a 64-50 exhibition setback at the Emporia State University Hornets today (Dec. 30) in Emporia, Kan.

Down 12-5, a layup by Christian Williams and a three-point play from Steele Chapman made it a two-point game at the 8:19 mark of the first half.

The Falcons fell behind as much as 10 in the opening stanza, but used a 10-5 spurt over the final 6:28 to cut that deficit in half and trail just 27-22 at the break.

A jumper by KJ Spiller and two free throws from Drew Patterson helped the Falcons pull within one early in the second half, but the Hornets scored the next five to push their lead back to six.

Friends was undeterred and again trimmed the ESU lead to a single point behind a layup by Tim Barbieri and a three from Spiller that made it 35-34 with 14:49 remaining.

The Hornets again had an answer, this time even more emphatic as Solomon Oraegbu fueled a big run by scoring half the points of a 12-0 burst that gave ESU their biggest lead to that point.

A three by Al Emerllahu momentarily brought the Falcons within seven, but seven points from Alijah Comithier sparked a 10-1 spurt that put it away for the Hornets.

Barbieri led the Falcons with 11 points and eight rebounds, with Patterson recording two assists.

Comithier paced the Hornets (10-3) with 19 points, while Darius Yohe had a double-double of 11 points and 12 boards. Oraegbu scored 14 for ESU with four steals and PJ Johnson chipped in with 13 points.

The Hornets an NCAA Division II school out of the MIAA, outrebounded the Falcons 52-36 overall.

Offense was tough to come by both ways, as Friends managed to outshoot ESU 31 percent (18-of-58) to 30.8 percent (20-of-65).

The Falcons will next resume KCAC action at home Wednesday night (Jan. 3) at 8 pm inside the Garvey Center.

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