Potomac State Men's Basketball cruises by 20
By Lenny Sundahl
Mineral Daily
News-Tribune
KEYSER—Potomac State took advantage of sloppy first-half play, building up a big cushion to cruise past the Black Bears of Penn Highlands College by a 83-63 final.
Micah Parker led all scorers with 23 for the Catamounts; Potomac State had four in double-figures, including Jaron Farrell and Michael Hatfield with 14 each and Carlton Johnson with 10.
Josh Corbett and Rashard Kelley scored 20 and 17 points each respectively for the Black Bears, but each scored 14 of their points in the second half.
From the outset Penn Highlands was unable to hang onto the ball long enough to make any worthwhile shots.
They turned the ball over four times in their first six possessions, and by the time they were on the board—three and a half minutes into the game—Potomac State had already scored 9.
Later on in the half, after a Tyler Smith three cut the Catamount lead to 17-7, Potomac State answered when Rayvaughn McKenney put a missed shot from Micah Parker back in the basket to put their lead at 12.
Penn Highlands proceeded to turn the ball over on their next five possessions—including two of Parker’s three steals—and the six points scored off those turnovers pushed their lead to 25-7. The stretches in which the Black Bears were able to hang onto the ball, they were barely able to do anything constructive with it, only shooting 6-for-30 (20 percent) from the floor in the first half, versus the Catamounts’ 18-of-41 (44 percent), and as a result wound up with more turnovers—17—than points, down at the half 45-16.
The gap was virtually insurmountable, although the Black Bears made an effort to come back in the second half, closing the gap to as little as 16 points as Penn Highlands hit eight threes, in the process scoring more points off second-half long-range shots than they did on all their shots in the first half.
Potomac State was simply too far ahead to catch up to, however, and despite a slightly poorer shooting half (38 percent) and turning the ball over twice as much (8) as they did in the first half, they were never seriously threatened for the lead.
With under a minute to go, Michael Hatfield was fouled making a layup; the bonus free throw put the Catamounts back up 20, 79-59, and after trading baskets Hatfield stole the ball from the Black Bears’ Iver Silva, and passed the ball to Micah Parker, who put a coup de grace dunk on the game.