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KUTZTOWN, Pa. – The Kutztown University men's basketball team rode the hot hand of redshirt-junior
Anthony Lee (Willow Grove, Pa./Abington) Saturday afternoon, and for good reason. Lee went 10-for-11 (90.9%) from the floor, including 5-of-5 from three-point range and tallied a game-high 26 points in leading KU to a 72-69 win over Mercyhurst University at Keystone Arena in its Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference home opener.
Lee found himself in foul trouble early in the second half, having picked up his third and fourth fouls in a span of 0:03, with the fourth coming with 17:30 remaining. But he checked in with 9:06 left and KU down by four, and scored 11 points the rest of the way to spark the offense.
The Golden Bears (5-1 overall, 2-1 PSAC) struggled to get into any rhythm for a majority of the game. In their last 14 possessions before halftime, they turned the ball over on nine different occasions. KU trailed at the half for the first time this season, down 32-29.
But just as they have done all season, Lee,
Ethan Ridgeway (West Chester, Pa./Bayard Rustin) and
Dan Cuevas (Stroudsburg, Pa./Stroudsburg) took the initiative in creating offense. Ridgeway, who came in leading the team in scoring at 22.0 points per game (ppg), scored 15 of his 18 points in the second half, and Cuevas totaled eight of his 12 points in the final 20 minutes. Ridgeway and Cuevas were especially essential in the offensive output during the over eight minute stretch without Lee when the offense was sputtering.
Down 58-53 with 7:27 to go, Kutztown scored 11 of the next 13 points to hold a 64-60 advantage with 2:43 left on the clock. It then led by five with 0:32 remaining, but a three-pointer by Ryan Roland cut the lead to two at 69-67 with 0:19 left.
Ridgeway, who finished 9-of-10 at the free-throw line, made one-of-two to put KU up by three.
The Lakers (4-2, 2-1) inbounded the ball with 0:11 to go and leading scorer Lorenzo Collier (18 points) found himself open behind the arc and attempted a three-pointer. The ball seemed to find its way into the cylinder, but then it rolled around a few different times and decided that it didn't want to drop.
Ricky Hicks (Coatesville, Pa./Polytech) collected the rebound and connected on both of his free-throws to seal the victory.
Rafiq Marshall (Philadelphia, Pa./Simon Gratz (Cheyney)) and Hicks both played meaningful minutes and contributed in the absence of Lee, both finishing with four points. Freshman
Kiyon Hardy (Philadelphia, Pa./The Shipley School) played 16 minutes and recorded two points and two assists.
Max Wagner (Perkasie, Pa./Pennridge) had four points, five rebounds and two blocks, and
Josh Townsend (Philadelphia, Pa./Imhotep Charter) finished with one point and three rebounds in just four minutes of action.
Lee has 995 career points, five shy of becoming the 26th player in program history to reach the 1,000 point mark. He is shooting 60% from the field, which is good for fifth in the PSAC, and his 58.8% from three-point range is first. Lee also made two steals and now has 18 on the season, second in the league.
Ridgeway dished out five assists and is second in the PSAC in total assists (40) and assists per game (6.7). He is also 34-for-36 (94.4%) from the free-throw line, which is fifth in the conference.
Kutztown returns to the court tomorrow, Sunday, Dec. 3 when it takes on Gannon University at 3 p.m. at Keystone Arena in another PSAC matchup.
