Middletown, Pa.- Saturday November 14th, the Penn State Harrisburg men's basketball team faced Rutgers-Camden in their annual Tip-Off Tournament presented by Hershey Park. The game was close throughout the first half before Harrisburg pulled away and controlled the second half on way to a 82-64 win.
The first few minutes of the game showed that both teams wanted to start their season with a win. Both teams battled back and forth for most of the first half, but Harrisburg took the edge going into halftime leading 33 to 26.
The Lions changed the direction of the game in the first few minutes of the second half due to a huge play by Junior Austin Chimuma (Bowie, Md. / Annapolis Area Christian). Chimuma fought through two Raptors to get a bucket for the Lions. Only a few seconds later, Kahlil Williams (Philadelphia, Pa. / Central) came up with two points off of an assist from Marquese Daniels (Philadelphia, Pa. / Philadelphia Electric & Technology Charter). These two plays pushed Harrisburg ahead 54-34 with ten minutes to go and they never looked back. Jourdon Wilson (Mechanicsburg, Pa. / Cumberland Valley) and Anthony Morgan (York, Pa. / New Hope Academy) led the team with 12 points each. Morgan also led with eight rebounds while Chimuma was close behind with seven rebounds.
Head Coach Don Friday was very happy with his teams performance, "Coming out of the gate, we wanted good energy for our first game of the year. We wanted balanced plays and we did a good job of that. As Rutgers Camden countered, I was excited to see how we responded to that as a team. What was most exciting as a club was seeing how individual players fit into roles and how we overall developed as a team."
In the second game of the tournament, Lebanon Valley defeated Roanoke 101-98. Rutgers Camden will face Roanoke in the consolation game tomorrow at 1 pm. Penn State Harrisburg will face Lebanon Valley at 3 pm in the championship game.
Local Carlisle graduate Billy Owens was on campus yesterday afternoon for Harrisburgs game against Rutgers Camden. Owens is an assistant coach for Rutgers Camden and is well known throughout the area. CBS 21 news was on campus for the game and an interview with Owens.
