Fayette men roar in USCAA opener
By Mike Ciarochi
Herald-Standard
Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus wasn't allowed to play a game in almost two weeks and somebody had to pay.
The Roaring Lions took out their long wait on Maine-Machias and, boy, did the Clippers ever pay before a packed house in the Main Arena at the Community Center on the local campus.
Penn State Fayette opened a 15-point lead at halftime and never looked back in a 100-86 win in the opening game of the Men's Division II bracket of the USCAA National Championship basketball tournament.
"We came out with something to prove," senior Matt McKenna said after leading the team with 33 points and 10 rebounds. "But this was just a play-in game. We have to play a better team (Thursday) and and we had better be ready for that."
The Roaring Lions (8-16) move on to a 2 p.m. Thursday match-up against No. 2 seed Berkeley College of New York in the Main Arena. Machias (17-12) plays a consolation game against Warren Wilson at 1:30 p.m. in the Maltho.
Fayette stretched its lead to 20 early in the second half and pushed the lead to 70-47 on a three-pointer from Dierre Jenkins near the 15-minute mark of the second half.
Machias closed to within 74-58 with 11:39 remaining and Fayette called a timeout to regroup. McKenna hit a driving lay-up to make it 76-58 and the teams traded baskets before Luke Williams got a steal, but turned it back over and the lead stayed at 78-60 at the 10-minute mark.
Williams scored 22 of his 25 points in the first half, mostly by hitting all four of his three-point shots.
"Every shot counts this time of year," Williams said. "The guys did a good job of finding me when I was hot."
Williams stretched the lead back to 20 with a pair of free throws, 80-60, with 9:03 remaining. Jenkins followed with another three to make it 83-60 with 8:31 left. A pair of free throws from C.J. Gaddis made it 85-60 Fayette near the 8:00 mark before Tony Bristol scored to make it 87-63 with about 6:30 left.
Gaddis hit two more foul shots with 5:30 left to make it an 89-65 lead. Machias closed to within 89-70 and Fayette called another timeout with 4:56 to play.
Gaddis made another free throw, then rebounded his miss with 3:12 left with Penn State Fayette ahead, 91-72. Jacob Bronder made two free throws to make it 93-72 and the Roaring Lions coasted from there.
Bronder finished with 15 points and nine rebounds for Fayette, Jenkins had 12 and Gaddis got 9 of his 11 points from the foul line and finished with 12 assists.
Floyd Higgins led Maine-Machias with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Dreu Johnson scored 15, Ben Teer 11 and Antwan Ruise 10.
Fayette assumed a 52-39 lead at halftime by hitting 60.6 percent of its 33 shots from the field, including an amazing 71.4 percent (5 of 7) from three-point range.
Williams set the pace with his hot shooting in the first half. He was 9-of-10 from the field.
McKenna was close behind with 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting and 5-of-7 marksmanship from the free throw line. Gaddis had six assists at the break and Bronder led with five rebounds, along with eight points.
Higging and Ruise led Maine-Machias with eight points each in the first half.
Maine-Machias never led in the first half, but the teams were tied for 2:24. Fayette led the other 17:26 of the half. The Roaring' biggest lead was 16 points (52-36 at 1:42) in the first 20 minutes. Fayette had only six turnovers in the first half, while Machias had 15.