FINAL SCORE: Apprentice School 83, Penn State Fayette 69

EVENT: Great Ships Classic

LOCATION: Apprentice Athletic Center

RECORDS: Apprentice School 3-0, Penn St. Fayette 0-4

ON THE COURT: Senior April McCoy scored 20 points to lead four Lady Builders in double figures on Friday night as they pulled away in the second half to defeat Penn State Fayette 83-69 in the Great Ships Classic.

In a first half that saw six ties, the Roaring Lions came out of the gate quickly and took as much as a seven point lead on a Shannon Flament layup with 9:13 left to hold a 25-18 advantage.  Over the next 3:47 the Apprentice School went on a 14-7 flurry to tie the game on a stickback by Kelsey Daniels with 5:26 left.  That got the Lady Builders back into the contest as they pushed the lead to 37-33 on a Courtney Collins jumper with 2:32 left.

Fayette used consecutive 3-pointers from Tara Neely and Caitlin Wontroba to tie the game 39-all with 77 seconds left.  Shelby Yourchik gave the visitors a 41-39 halftime lead as she hit a pair of free throws with 18 seconds left.

In the second half, Penn State Fayette scored the first four points as Jill Guthrie hit a jumper and a pair of free throws to lead 45-39 with 18:18 left.  Apprentice School responded with a 19-6 run over the next 8:10 to lead 58-51 on a free throw from Daniels.

The Roaring Lions made one last run as they trimmed the margin to three on a Guthrie layup with 8:40 left to trail 60-57.  That was as close as they got as the Lady Builders used a 15-2 run over a 2:18 span to push the advantage to 82-63 on a 3-point play from McCoy.

BEHIND THE BOX SCORE

• Courtney Collins was next in line scoring with 18 points, eight rebounds and four assists.
• Danita Whitaker had her second double-double of the year with 14 points and 19 rebounds.  The 19 rebounds are a new career-high for Whitaker topping the 18 she had last season against Central Penn College.
• Shanae Hilliard had 11 points and three steals to join the double figure club.
• Apprentice School outrebounded the Roaring Lions 61-40 as McCoy and Daniels had eight rebounds each to go along with the hauls from Whitaker and Collins.
• McCoy added a season high three blocked shots.
• Wontroba paced Penn State Fayette with 20 points, while Guthrie had 15 points and 10 rebounds.  Flament had 12 points and five rebounds off the bench.

GAME ONE

In the opening game, Southern Virginia held Bennett College scoreless for the first nine minutes as they routed the Belles 94-50.  SVU opened the game scoring the first 26 points and cruised as Tatiana Monsen had 26 points, five rebounds, five assists and five steals for the Knights.

NEXT UP

Apprentice School faces Bennett at 3 pm tomorrow in the final game of the 2013 Great Ships Classic.  Southern Virginia takes on Penn State Fayette in the 1pm opener.