Men Tie for 15 in USCAA Weekly Coach’s Poll
The PSUGA Men's Basketball team jumped three spots in this week's USCAA coach's poll finishing tied for 15 in the country. In a week, where they went 3-0, PSUGA continues to fight for a PSUAC playoff spot.
McKeesport, PA. – The United States Collegiate Athletic Association released their weekly coach’s poll on Wednesday and the Penn State Greater Allegheny Men’s Basketball Team (9-4, 6-3) finished in a tie for #15 on this week’s list. After three crucial wins over Penn State Fayette and Penn State Mont Alto and Penn State New Kensington over the week, PSUGA has been able to fight its way back into the playoff race and has pushed their win streak to five straight games.
The week started off with a nail bitter when PSUGA topped PSU-Fayette 78-74 thanks to a 43-point second half. PSUGA got a slight 35-34 advantage before halftime before a short 5-0 run gave them the advantage, they needed to be able to hold off the Roaring Lions and pick up a crucial division win.
After handling business against PSU-New Kensington 101-86 on Saturday, it was back to a big game scenario when PSUGA took on PSU-Mont Alto. It was another back and forth game throughout the night, but PSUGA had the strength to pull out the 83-77 win. PSUGA would find themselves behind 39-33 at half, but senior Jordon Payne (McKeesport, PA./McKeesport HS) exploded for 19 second half points to lead a 50-point attack that gave PSUGA the victory.
Antonio Hill (West Mifflin, PA./West Mifflin HS) has burst onto the scene so far in 2019 scoring in double digits in all four of his team’s contests, including an average of 15.7 PPG over his last three games. Mhonte Newsome (Baltimore, Md./Our Lady of Mt. Saint Carmel) has come on offensively as well scoring 24 and 19 points respectively over his last two games.
After a rough start to the 2018-2019 season, PSUGA has turned it on over the course of this five game winning streak rising from out of the ashes to become a contender in the Penn State University Athletic Conference. They went from being 1-3 and in fifth place in the division to being 6-3 tied atop the division with Beaver and Mont Alto.
PSUGA continues their trek towards a PSUAC playoff spot when they take on PSU-Scranton on Friday as part of the second half of a men’s and women’s doubleheader at 8 p.m.