Finlandia’s Danny Zuchak tries to dribble past Beloit’s Semaj Roy in the second half of the Lions’ home opener at the Paavo Nurmi Center on Friday. (Eddie O’Neill/Daily Mining Gazette)

HANCOCK — The Finlandia University men’s basketball team opened their 2022-23 campaign on the right foot with an 84-76 victory over the Beloit Buccaneers. It was the Lions first home-opener win since Nov. 18, 2014, and their first season-opener win since Nov. 17, 2006.

While the first game of the season at the Paavo Nurmi Gymnasium had its fair share of opening-day jitters, the Lions got the job done much to the satisfaction of their head coach Allen Dehority.

“The guys came out with a lot of energy and put the pressure on Beloit,” he said. We were able to keep them off balance and get them out of their offense which helped us a lot.”

The Lions’ tenacity forced an impressive 31 turnovers which included 15 steals.

“I loved the hustle and the energy our guys brought to the court right from the opening minute,” added Dehority.

After the opening tip, the Lions pulled out to a 9-4 lead. However, it was short-lived as the Buccaneers tied it at nine and took a lead courtesy of a jumper hit by Beloit’s Connor Coombs to make it an 11-9 tilt at the 12-minute mark.

It did not take long, though, for Lions to bounce back to tie it at 16 and go up at 22 -21. The two teams traded hoops as the half wound down to tie again at 27 at the 3:18 mark. The Buccaneers would lead up until the last minute at 35-34, however, the Lions’ Ilrick Higgins-Moise put an end to that with a dunk at the buzzer to make it 36-35 at the half.

Higgins-Moise, a junior, would lead the Lions in points with 25. He was followed by Danny Zuchak with 17. The Lions shot 45.7 percent from the floor and were 7-21 from in three-point attempts. The Buccaneers shot 45.3 percent from field goal range and were just 3-13 from beyond the three-point arc. Brian Rusch led the scoring for them with 21.

Interestingly, Dehority played 15 men throughout the game- all of whom got at least five minutes on the floor. All but one of those players scored.

“I feel that we have 15 guys who can contribute to the scoreboard and that was the case,” he said. “Moving forward I hope to continue to move multiple guys in and out. What we lack in size or height, we feel we can make up for in speed and athleticism.”

Finlandia opened the second half with a 5-0 run, but Beloit came back to tie it at 44. However, that was as good as it got for the Buccaneers as the Lions pulled away and took their biggest lead of the game at nine points at the 11:30 mark. While Beloit came within three points with less than five minutes to go at 66-63 , they could not catch them, and the Lions would go on to win this one 84-76.

While Dehority was pleased with the win, he said there is a lot still to be desired.

“We need to box-out better,” he said. “Our rebounding on both ends of the court was not very good.”