Junior Khiorie Stewart scored 23 points, and freshman Drew Johnson added 19 points to lead the University of Mary Washington men's basketball team past Penn St.-Harrisburg on Saturday afternoon in Ron Rosner Arena. The Eagles improve to 16-5 overall, and 10-4 in the CAC.
In the early going, the two teams traded buckets and the score was notched up at 5-5 with 16:43 left. The Eagles sank two three-pointers, one from Johnson and one from Eric Shaw, to take the lead 11-5 with 15:28 remaining. Penn St.-Harrisburg made a jump shot to put them down four, 11-7, and the Eagles then proceeded to go on a 9-0 run to go up 20-7 with 12:22 left.
The Nittany Lions responded and went on a 6-0 run to go down seven, 20-13, with 11:17 remaining. Sophomore A.J. Robinson nailed a three-pointer with 8:19 left and the Eagles went up eight, 28-20. Penn St.-Harrisburg made a jump shot with 7:12 left and that cut the lead to three, 28-25. Johnson drained another three-pointer with 4:30 left to go back up seven, 36-29.
A free throw and a three-pointer from Johnson with 1:27 extended the Eagles lead to 11, 42-31. Shaw made a layup with 52 seconds to grow the lead to 13, but the Nittany Lions scored the last four points of the half to cut it to nine and UMW was up 44-35 at the half.
Penn St.-Harrisburg opened the second half but scoring the first four points to cut it to five, 44-39, in the first 1:28 into the second half. Johnson made a three-pointer to extend the lead back to eight, 49-41, with 17:11 left. UMW extended the lead, 58-46, on another three-pointer from Johnson with 12:37 remaining.
Penn St.-Harrisburg cut it to seven, 58-51, on a layup with 11:24 left in the game. Mark Madison made a three-pointer and then Stewart took the game over as he scored 13 straight points and that put UMW up 21, 74-53. The Nittany Lions clawed back into the game as they scored seven straight to go down 14, 74-60.
After the two teams traded baskets, the Eagles again extended the lead to 19, 84-65, on a layup from Stewart with 3:53 left in the game. Sophomore Sekai Walker got in the scoring book as he made a tough layup with 1:21 left to put the Eagles up 21, 89-68. Freshman Jordan Shaw capped the scoring for UMW with two made free throws with just 44 seconds left in the game. The Eagles closed out the game and won 91-70.
Stewart shot 9-11 from the field, while Johnson show 6-8 from three-point range. Shaw netted 14 points to go along with six rebounds and four assists. Madison also finished in double figures as he scored 10 points. Penn St.-Harrisburg was led by Kahlil Williams who scored 19 points.
The Eagles shot 62.3% (33-53) from the field, making 16-31 three-pointers, and 9-16 free throws. The Nittany Lions shot 51.9% (28-54) from the field, making 4-17 three-pointers, and 10-18 free throws. UMW dished out 23 assists for the day and turned the Nittany Lions over 17 times.
UMW will be back in action on Wednesday as they travel to Frostburg St. in a CAC clash with a tip-off set at 8 p.m.