Greater Allegheny Men's Basketball Posts Well-Deserved First Win of the Season, 95-66

Hillsboro, Ohio - With a 29-point advantage, the Penn State Greater Allegheny men's basketball team earned their first win of the regular season, Friday night, in the first match-up of the Southern State Community College Tip-Off Tournament. The men overpowered Southern State CC by a margin of 95-66.

Sophomore forward Curtis Newby (Sharon, Pa./Sharon) was the first on the board with a layup. Freshman guard Jordon Payne (McKeesport, Pa./McKeesport) hammered down a three-pointer before sophomore guard Denzel Boyer-London (Coatesville, Pa./Coatesville) made a jumper, 7-3 GA. Payne added another ringer of a trey as Newby tacked on a dunk, extending the GA lead 12-3.

Payne and Boyer-London both put up layups as Payne knocked down a three, 19-5 GA within the first six minutes of action. Sophomore guard Khari Hicks (East Hills, Pa./Imani Christian Academy) added a pair of jumpers as Boyer-London put up another two points. Freshman guard Marcus Ball (Warsaw, Va./Rappahannock), freshman forward Isaiah Fluker (Waldorf, Md./Thomas Stone) and junior guard Moe Alli (Edison, N.J./Cardinal McCarrick) all denoted layups before freshman guard Derek Pribanic (Jeannette, Pa./Penn-Trafford) put on a three-pointer, 34-13 Greater Allegheny.

Sophomore forward Malik Patterson-Brown (Philadelphia, Pa./Roxborough) knocked down a jumper before Ball tallied four points with a three and a free-throw to continue the Greater Allegheny stride, 44-20. SSCC tallied free-throw points as the clock wound down to three minutes left in the first half. Hicks laid on a three-pointer as both he and London-Boyer marked layups. Alli managed a free-throw before Payne dropped another three-pointer to head into the half, 55-34 Lions.

Payne and Hicks both dropped four points each to start the new half as sophomore forward Curtis Newby (Sharon, Pa./Sharon) put up a layup. Pribanic added a free-throw point as Alli completed a jumper and a three-pointer, GA 71-43.

Fluker completed a lay-up before freshman guard Eronn Hammond (Pittsburgh, Pa./Obama Academy) notched a three-pointer. Patterson-Brown and Payne mirrored one another with a pair of jumpers. Hicks, Boyer-London and Newby all laid on layups as Pribanic achieved a jumper. Freshman guard Tyrone Johnson (Hampstead, Md./North Carroll) erupted with two completed free-throws, a three-pointer and a jumper to end regulation, Greater Allegheny in the driver's seat by a margin of 95-66.

Payne went 9-of-19 from the floor as he placed 22 points, four steals, three rebounds and three assists through the competition. Hicks put up 13 points through the battle as both Newby and Boyer-London added ten points a piece. Alli and Ball came off the bench with eight points a piece added while the rest of the bench added a total of 24 points.

Southern State took the lead by one point just once in the first half, as the Greater Allegheny Lions continued to flex their muscles. As a team, the Lions dropped 44 points in the paint alongside 35 points off turnovers and 24 points in the paint.

Greater Allegheny (1-5) continue the Southern State Community College Tip-Off Tournament, Saturday afternoon, as the men look forward to battling Clark State at 1 p.m.