SCHUYLKILL HAVEN, Pa. – After a having a small lead early in the first period in Saturday's men's basketball game, New Kensington was unable to maintain command for the duration of the time, leaving Schuylkill to finish the contest with a home win, 81-71. This accounts for New Kensington's fifth conference loss, however it improved Schuylkill to 5-1.

Within the first 13 minutes of play, New Kensington and Schuylkill tied up the scores six times with a lot of back and forth action. Schuylkill then gained momentum and took off, forcing New Kensington to trail behind for the rest of the period. New Kensington was only down by 7 at the end of the half, as both teams had similar shot attempts. New Kensington converted 10 of 32 and Schuylkill went 14 for 31. Spencer Wilson (Plum, Pa./ Plum) posted 11 points for New Kensington, and was the top scorer of both teams for the half. Moving into halftime, Schuylkill was leading 40-33.

Once into the second period, Schuylkill took advantage of the gap they caused in the scores and gained their largest lead at 11:53, with the score reading 62-40. Lamonttea Brown paced the half with 12 points, as Schuylkill shot in 16 of 30 field goals. The host put in 5 of 10 from the distance of the arc, while New Kensington added 4 of 5 attempts.

New Kensington tallied up more field goal attempts (25-64) than the home team, but Schuylkill was able to drill in more (30-61).

Wilson was head of New Kensington's scoring, totaling 15 points, along with being the top rebounder, taking 12. Joseph Dusabe (Fox Chapel) posted 14 points, Bernard Lawson (Pittsburgh, Pa. Serra Catholic) had 13, and Jahi Ogbonna (Pittsburgh, Pa./ Allerdice) added six assists. 

For Schuylkill, Brown led the way with 17 points, and Jonathan Smith had nine rebounds.

New Kensington will take the short trip to Penn State Fayette on Friday for an 8 p.m. game, and Schuylkill will stay at home to host Penn State Brandywine, also at 8 p.m.

Written by Janet Surma