Penn State Scranton Men’s Basketball Drops Home Contest to York

By Ross Turetsky, Penn State Scranton Athletics

On Tuesday evening in the electric city, Penn State Scranton's men's basketball squad fell to conference foe Penn State York 90-74. With the 16 point defeat, Scranton's two game conference win streak, beating both Penn State Du Bois and Greater Allegheny, was snapped, as their overall record now stands at 4-5, alongside a 2-2 mark in the all-important league play. Scranton was coming off of an impressive 26 point, 107-81, home victory over Central Penn last week in the consolation game in their fifth annual pre-Thanksgiving Penn State Scranton tip-off tournament.

After holding a few leads and keeping the game highly competitive, trailing only by seven points, 47-40, at the conclusion of the first half, Scranton looked to build on that momentum in the crucial second half of play. Unfortunately, Penn State York pulled away and never looked back in the contest's final 20 minutes, as they outscored Scranton 43-34 in the second half, as they clinched their dominant triumph.

The Lions from Scranton were led by their dynamic senior duo of Matt Dessoye and Rob McAndrew who both scored in double figures on the night. Dessoye scored a team-high 22 points, 11 points in each half, to go along with his solid seven assists, three rebounds, and hit on two of his five attempts from beyond the arc in his 31 minutes on the court. McAndrew who started the game off red hot with 17 points in the first half of play, was held to only three points in the second half, as he put up 20 points in total, two boards, and was 4-8 on his three point tries. Honorable mention goes to Melick Lubin and Joel Castillo who got in the starting lineup and were solid in the low post. Lubin scored eight points, shooting a highly efficient 4-6 from the field, in his 16 minutes of work. Castillo in his 27 minutes of action notched nine points and six boards.

Head coach Matt Rotonda and his York squad were led by five double digit scorers in the ball game, in Michael Coleman, Deriq Brown, D'Andre Davis, Connor Hostetter, and Evan Brady. Coleman scored a game-high 26 points, on 10-18 shooting from the field, hitting six of his three pointers, while also collecting seven rebounds, and five assists in his 34 minutes of play. Brown had 16 points, three assists, and two boards in the contest. Davis filled out the stat sheet well with his 13 points, three rebounds, three assists, and two steals. Hostetter tallied 10 points, five rebounds, and two blocks down low. Last but certainly not least, Brady came off the bench and provided a key spark for his club in his 18 minutes on the court, as he put up 10 points, hitting on two of his four attempts from beyond the arc, was 4-7 shooting from the field, and collected three boards.

Now head coach Chris Sload and his Penn State Scranton men's basketball squad will look to get back to their winning ways this Friday night, December 3^rd, when they travel on the road to take on conference foe Penn State Beaver, with an 8pm tip-off.