Box Score Erie, Pa. – The Kutztown University men's basketball team fell to West Virginia State on the opening night of the PSAC/WVIAC Challenge on Friday night, 76-72, at the Mercyhurst Athletic Center. The loss ruined the college debut of Tracy Peal who scored 16 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.
Tyler Brooks (Douglassville, Pa./Daniel Boone) filled up the stat line, posting a double-double with 14 points and 15 boards to go along with five steals, three assists and one block. The junior took advantage of his opportunities, shooting 4-of-5 from the floor including one three-pointer and going 5-of-6 from the line.
The Golden Bears (0-1) could not cling to a two-point lead with 3:22 left to play in the second as they were outscored by the Yellow Jackets (1-0), 7-3, in the final two and a half minutes action.
Micah Fraction (Macungie, PA/Montrose Christian) led all scorers on the evening with 19 points, 14 of which came in the second half.
After trailing, 17-12, mid-way through the first half, the team roared back behind Brooks' 13-point first half to take a 39-38 lead into the locker room. From there, the second half was back and forth with the final 10 minutes seeing seven lead changes. The Yellow Jackets shot over 51-percent in the second half, grabbing the lead with two and a half minutes on the clock and never looked back, taking the four-point victory.
Foul trouble cost KU some size as
Ryan Connolly (Harleysville, Pa./Souderton Area) played just 21 minutes, hampered by early fouls. The freshman scored eight points with half of them coming at the charity stripe, going a perfect 4-for-4.
KU had no trouble getting to the foul line Friday night, hitting 23 of its 31 attempts as West Virginia State had some trouble in that department, going 7-of-13. Kutztown also played some stingy defense at times, creating 15 steals with Brooks and Connolly combining for nine of them.
The Yellow Jackets leading scorer was Howard Douglas III who came off the bench for 15 points. Anton Hutchins was the only other to reach double-digits for WVSU with 11. The Yellow Jackets held an edge in the three-point category, knocking down nine of their 25 tries, while KU shot 3-of-12.
The Golden Bears will get back to work on day two of the PSAC/WVIAC Challenge when they match up with Concord for a 1:00 p.m. tip.
