Freshman Da'Shawn Cook scored 22 points to lead the University of Mary Washington men's basketball team past Penn St. Harrisburg College, 65-51, in the first round of the CAC tournament. The Eagles improve to 18-8 overall and will face York College in the CAC semifinals. Senior Johnny Cronin scored 16 points and added 12 rebounds.
In the early going, the two teams exchanged buckets and the score stood still at 4-4 3:02 into the game. From there, UMW played excellent defense and held the Nittany Lions scoreless over the next four minutes. During that time, UMW scored eight points unanswered to go up 12-4 with 13:15 to play. Jacob Williams, Cronin, and Greg Rowson all contributed points in the run.
After PSH cut the lead to four, 12-8, UMW went on an 11-0 run to extend their lead to 23-8 with 8:22 remaining. Da'Shawn Cook scored nine of those points with an array of shots. The Eagles again played stellar defense as they gave up just two points in seven minutes. Cronin made a layup 4:23 left to give the Eagles their largest lead of the first half at 17, 28-11. PSH was able to cut into the lead before half and the score stood at 28-16 at the half.
Cronin scored the first five points out of the half to put the Eagles back up 17, 33-16, just 1:57 in. PSH then went on a 15-4 run to go down single digits, 37-31 with 12:11 to play in the game. Cook put an end to that run with a three-pointer to put the Eagles back up nine, 40-31. PSH cut the Eagles' lead to one, 40-39, with 8:59 to play.
Drew Johnson scored five straight points to put the Eagles up six, 45-39, with 8:10 to go. PSH cut the lead to two, 45-43, with 6:37 to play. That was the closest they would get as UMW then went on a 10-0 run to go up 55-43 with 3:37 to go. From there, the Eagles held on to hit free throws and held PSH to take the win 65-51.
Rowson added 12 points and five rebounds, while Johnson provided 10 points off the bench.
The Eagles will look for revenge against York on Thursday at 7 p.m. UMW fell by just two points in their last outing.