Scranton Drops First Game of 2023 to Bucks County Community College

By: Ross Turetsky, Penn State Scranton Athletics

After a long 28 day, four week holiday/end of the semester break, the Penn State Scranton men's basketball squad kicked-off the new calendar year with a tough 92-70 home non-conference loss to the visiting Bucks County Community College Centurions. Back on November 12^th, Scranton defeated the Centurions 88-81 to capture the PSU Scranton Men's Basketball Tip-Off Tournament championship. After falling in today's matinee contest, Scranton sees their overall record stand at 4-8 and they remain 1-6 in the all-important conference play schedule.

The Lions from Scranton kept the game close in the first half of play, as they only trailed by a mere seven points, 37-30, heading into the break. Early in the second half, about four minutes in, Scranton even tied the game up at 43-43 when junior guard Khalil White connected on a big three point shot from downtown. However, the road warrior Centurions would come right back just moments later when freshman Brendan O'Reilly connected from beyond the arc to give his squad a 46-43 advantage, and from there, Bucks County would never look back, as they outscored Scranton the rest of the ball game by a whopping 46-27 margin, as they ran away with the dominant 22 point victory by the contest's final whistle.

Scranton had three players score in double digits in the matchup, as senior forward Justin Craigg, sophomore guard Jaiden Wiggins, and freshman big man Ryan Cabrera led the way on the offensive attack. Craigg scored a team-high 18 points, to go along with his six rebounds, four assists, and a block in his stellar 34 minutes of work. Wiggins notched a double-double, the only one for both teams in the game, with his 14 points and 12 boards, to go along with his six assists. Last but certainly not least, Cabrera, who was making his college basketball debut, came off the bench and provided his team with a much needed spark in his stalwart 18 minutes of play, as he put up 13 points on an efficient 5-10 shooting from the field and connected on 2-4 attempts from three point land, to go along with his pair of rebounds, two assists, and a steal to boot.

Meanwhile for Bucks County they had an impressive well-rounded scoring attack, as they had five players put up double digit performances, as freshman guard Yasir Rowell, fellow freshman Tobias Prall, sophomore guard Joseph Brusha, freshman center Jaden Fogg, and O'Reilly set the pace. Rowell came off the bench and in his stand-out 36 minutes of action scored a game-high 21 points, to go along with his trio of assists, hat trick of steals, and a rebound. Prall also came off the bench to put up a solid performance for his ball club, as he scored 16 points in only 15 minutes on the floor, to go along with his seven boards, five assists, a block, and a steal. Brusha tallied 15 points, scoring all of them from beyond the arc, where he was lethal shooting a robust 5-9 from downtown. Fogg provided an imposing presence down low in the paint all game long, as he also notched 15 points, to go along with his eight boards, two assists, a steal, and a block. Finally, O'Reilly came off the bench and had 11 points on a red hot 4-6 shooting from the field and 3-5 from three point land, to go along with his five rebounds, an assist, and a steal in his impressive 24 minutes on the court.

Now head coach Chris Sload and his Penn State Scranton men's basketball squad will look to snap their six game losing streak when they next hit the floor on the road against conference foe Penn State Du Bois with a 3pm matinee next Sunday, January 15^th. Meanwhile head coach Farrad McLaughlin and his Bucks County Community College ball club, who with the road win over Scranton snapped their mini three game losing streak and saw their overall record improve to 6-5 and their conference record remain at 2-1. The Centurions will be in action again this upcoming Thursday, January 12^th, when they host Monroe College (JV) with a 7pm tip-off.