Brandywine Drops Season’s First Home Game

MEDIA, Pa. -- The Penn State Brandywine men's basketball team was defeated by Penn State Hazleton during its home opener on Monday night, falling by a score of 68-56.

The visitors led wire-to-wire, scoring the game's first nine points before Amari Little's (Ellicott City, Md./Marriotts Ridge) layup got Brandywine on the board at 16:17 mark.  

The Hazleton lead was 11 points four minutes later when Little and Jamar Wright (Wilmington, Del./Conrad School of Science) knocked down back-to-back three-pointers to get Brandywine within five.

Hazleton answered with nine of the next 11 points and extended the margin to 14 points at intermission as Connor Rushing buried a triple with 14 seconds remaining in the half.

A five-minute scoreless spell midway through the second period allowed Hazleton to open up its biggest advantage of the night, swelling the lead to 20 points following a pair of Rushing free throws.

Brandywine made a final push as Wright canned a pair of triples in the span of 40 seconds and Little added a fast-break bucket to make the count 61-50 with 2:40 to play; however, Dante Harward countered with a three-pointer as the shot clock was expiring to baloon Hazleton's edge back to 14 and the visitors' lead did not dip below 12 the rest of the way.

Little, who was named United East Conference Offensive Player of the Week earlier in the day, scored 15 of his team-high 19 points during the first half. He added four rebounds, three assists and two steals.

Wright buried a trio of triples and scored 13 points, while Jaden Fogg (Morrisville, Pa./Morrisville) pulled in a team-high nine rebounds and Javon Nelson (Philadelphia, Pa./String Theory) collected a team-best three steals.

Brandywine shot 34 percent from the field, while allowing Hazleton to connect on 37 percent of its shots. Hazleton also knocked down 19 free throws, compared to 12 by Brandywine.

Brandywine (1-1) is back at home Wednesday to face local rival Neumann with tip-off slated for 7:00 PM.