The Franciscan University men’s basketball team lost to the Bethany Bison 85-63 at Hummel Gymnasium in Bethany, West Virginia, Wednesday night.

   

     This rivalry game is always a game Coach Joe Wallace and his staff mark down on their calendars every season.  Franciscan and Bethany greatly despise each other when it comes to the game of basketball. The rivalry is exciting because Bethany is only about 20 minutes south from Franciscan. So whenever Franciscan and Bethany square off, there is always a big crowd in attendance.

     

     Before this game tipped off, Franciscan was 6-1 against Bethany since joining the President’s Athletic Conference in 2020. Before the Barons joined the conference, the Bison were 8-1 against Franciscan in non-conference games. The last time these two teams competed against each other was on February 8, 2022, at Hank Kuzma Court in Steubenville, Ohio. The Barons won this exhilarating game by a close score of 65-63. 

     

     “We own them,” said Franciscan center Yann Yonkeu. “Bethany will always be Bethany and this will be a great game for us tonight.”

     

     Well, that was not the case Wednesday night. Bethany dominated the Barons in every aspect. The only category where there was a tie was turnovers. Each team committed 17 turnovers while the Bison scored a whopping 26 points off of the Barons’ turnovers. The Barons had a lot of shooting woes throughout the whole game. The Barons shot 31.6% from the field while the Bison shot 46.9%.
     

     What made Bethany stand out from Franciscan was blocked shots. The Bison committed 10 blocks and that was all thanks to sophomore Cole Dailey. Dailey, who is from East Liverpool, Ohio, scored 12 points and grabbed 13 rebounds. He also had six blocks and seemed to be everywhere on the court. Getting blocks and rebounds is his specialty and his presence was felt in every play.

     

     Josh Zimmerman for the Barons could not bring his heroics tonight. Zimmerman scored the game-winning layup against Penn State Beaver on Saturday with 3.8 seconds remaining. Zimmerman finished that game with 21 points and 10 rebounds. But in Wednesday night's game, Zimmerman only scored nine points and was just shy of a double-double with nine rebounds.

     

     With two minutes remaining in the game, the Barons saw a 20-point deficit and that is when Wallace called a timeout to put his bench players in. Freshmen Thomas Kristian and James Maholm, as well as senior Alan Wood, were able to get some time off the bench and in the action on the court.

Senior Nicholas Allienello led the Barons in scoring with 16 points and four rebounds. Freshman stand-out Sawyer Butler, who scored 18 points last game against Penn State Beaver, scored 15 points and grabbed 11 rebounds.

     

     For the Bison, Chance Wells led the herd with 17 points and nine rebounds. Troy Hixson also scored 17 points and grabbed five boards. The Barons played a great defense on big man Dailey as he only scored 12 points but also grabbed 13 rebounds. Before entering Wednesday night's game, Dailey averaged 23.5 points and 11 rebounds per game. The Barons did a good job preventing him from scoring, but Dailey and his teammates were too strong and overpowered the Barons overall.

     

     The Barons play their next game against Thiel College on Saturday, November 18, at 3 p.m. It will be another away game for Franciscan as their next four of six games will be on the road. Thiel College is 1-3 overall and 0-1 in conference play as they lost to conference rival Geneva College 82-62 on Wednesday night. Franciscan will go into Saturday’s game with a record of 1-2 overall and 0-1 in conference play. This is a must-win conference game as the Barons look to avoid a repeat of last season’s conference play, as they finished 4-16 in conference games and failed to make it to the playoffs.

 

 

Going Sober

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     Joe Ciola still remembers the first day he came onto campus. He was nervous and overwhelmed with everything that was happening. Families walking past him moving stuff into dorms and students running around. The crisp summer August day was the only thing keeping Ciola’s mind sharp and focused. Later in the day he had his first basketball practice of the semester and he got to meet all of his teammates. His freshman class was the biggest class on the team with nine people. When he walked into the gym later that day, the rest became history. 

 

     Now Ciola is in his final year of college. Through all the ups and downs of college, he is ready to take on this year with a chip on his shoulder. Ciola’s four years of college was a roller coaster ride, but he is slowly rising to the top.

Ciola entered this semester with one goal in mind: to not drink any alcohol and become sober for a year. Throughout college, he became prone to drinking a lot and relieving the stress and anxieties of basketball and school by drinking alcohol. The first three years of college, his mindset was “get through this hard week, reward myself with alcohol on the weekend.”

     

     That mindset led to a distorted view of reality. Everyday he only thought about the weekend. He was never present with his day-to-day life. He was not happy with himself and he decided he needed a change in his life. With alcoholism running in his family, he realized he wanted to change and be a steward of Jesus Christ.
Ever since the last day of school in May 2023, Ciola has not drank one sip of alcohol. Ciola anticipates he will face a lot of temptation and struggles throughout his senior year, but he gives thanks and praise to God for where he is today.

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     “I feel the most mentally and physically clean I have ever felt in my life and I am spiritually doing better than I ever had in my life,” said Ciola.

 

     A solid faith life has been an important factor in Ciola’s life. Without faith, he would not be where he is today, he said.

 

     Ciola said, “It wasn’t until sophomore year that I took my faith life seriously. Now I am disciplined and I distract myself from the worldly pleasures. I have never been this happy before in my life.”

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     Being in a healthy relationship has always been important to him throughout college. Ciola has been through a lot of ups and downs when it comes to a relationship and at the end of his junior year, he found the right woman.

 

     He said, “She is such a strong woman and our relationship is very strong that it just kinda complements me and enhances my capability as a man and allows me to act as a man.”

 

     Now after dating his girlfriend for almost seven months and going on five months of sobriety, Ciola is becoming the man he wants and invisions to be: A true, strong man of God. Being a warrior and having a disciplined mindset is what he always wanted to be. This mindset has helped him with his faith life and even on the basketball court.

On his role on the team Ciola said, “I definitely have more responsibility and take more weight on the team, setting an example and showing the younger guys how we do it around here.”

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     Joe Ciola has had an adventure over the course of these four years at Franciscan University. He has overcome a lot of adversity and he went through a lot to get to where he is today. Before his transformation, it was always basketball and relationships. Now, his one focus is to get to heaven and to be a saint and to be the best overall man for God and for his girlfriend.  All of this happened because of one easy but very hard choice: to be completely sober.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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