Mont Alto, PA – After a 5-hour bus ride up north to Pennsylvania, the Apprentice Men's Basketball team looked to get back to their winning ways, as they faced Penn State-York in the first of two games this weekend. It was an opportunity, for the first time this season, for the Builders to play USCAA competition. PSU-York came into the game with a record of 2-1, while Apprentice brought in a record of 1-1. However, from the opening tip, and throughout the game, the Builders showed no rust from not playing since last Saturday.
Apprentice got on the board first, and after an Avin Hawkins 3-pointer, they quickly jumped out to a 7-2 lead. However, PSU-York was able to put together a run, scoring 8 straight points, giving them the 10-7 advantage. PSU-York would increase their lead to 18-13, but the Builders settled down and a 3-pointer by Tony Epps, Jr, tied the game at 18-18. The game was tied at again at 27-27, with 52 seconds remaining in the half, when Angel Pacheco-Ortiz drained another Apprentice 3-pointer, giving them the 30-27 lead. Both teams would trade another basket each and the Builders headed to the locker room up by 3 points, 32-29.
The first 4 minutes of the second half saw both teams executing on the offensive end of the court, but at the 17:28 mark of the second half, a 3-pointer from Avin Hawkins allowed Apprentice to begin to pull away from PSU-York. A defensive rebound by Corey Joyner resulted in a fast break dunk from Marion Moore which put the Builders up by double-digits, for the first in the game, 48-38. That would begin a run that saw Apprentice stretch their lead to 53-40 and then 58-45. Another Marion Moore fast break basket, followed by his 2nd dunk of the game kept the momentum going and with 3:33 left in the game, Karree Smith converted on a layup, which gave the Builders their largest lead of the game, 85-60. PSU-York was unable to make a run and as the buzzer sounded, Apprentice would come away with the win, 89-68.
Avin Hawkins led all scorers with 25 points, going 5-8 from the 3-point line, while Corey Joyner and Marion Moore each finished with 11 points. Moore also led the Builders with 7 rebounds. As a team, Apprentice shot 52% from the field and 53% from the 3-point line. They also finished the game with 42 points in the paint and 40 points from fast breaks. It is a quick turnaround for the Builders as they will be back in action tomorrow afternoon when they face host team Penn State-Mont-Alto. Tip-off is scheduled for 3:00pm and can be seen live at https://www.facebook.com/PSUMAathletics