The bright lights and storied history of Pottsville’s Martz Hall may have put too much pressure on Penn State Schuylkill’s men’s and women’s basketball teams when they met Penn State Hazleton on Tuesday night.
The women’s team fell 56-48 for its first loss of the season, while the men were on the wrong end of an 81-63 rout as Penn State Hazleton completed the sweep of its Pennsylvania State University Athletic Conference rivals.
Penn State Schuylkill’s women’s squad (2-1, 0-1 PSUAC) held a 4-2 lead early in the first quarter, but Penn State Hazleton’s McKenzie Prutsman tied the game and scored again on a go-ahead jumper that gave her team a lead it never relinquished.
Prutsman led Penn State Hazleton (6-1, 1-0) with 18 points, while Alexis Daly shot 6-for-7 from the free-throw line to finish with 14 points.
Penn State Schuylkill also lost the turnover battle, giving the ball away 28 times to Hazleton’s 17.
“As a team, Hazleton did a really nice job against us defensively,” Penn State Schuylkill coach Charlie Killian said. “They did a nice job reading the plays as they were happening, which is something you can’t coach. It’s just athletic ability and they’re a very athletic team.”
Tessa Dolce recorded a double-double for Penn State Schuylkill with 16 points and 24 rebounds, while Renae Warcola added 11 points off the bench.
Dolce expressed her frustration with the loss by saying she and her team just could not get in sync.
“We didn’t come out to play and we weren’t on our game,” Dolce said. “Basketball is all about fun and we just didn’t have fun tonight, but we’re going to practice tomorrow and get it together for the next one.”
In the men’s game, Penn State Schuylkill (2-4, 0-1) kept Penn State Hazleton (2-5, 1-0) close throughout the first half, with both teams trading leads before Hazleton took a 35-31 halftime advantage.
Jordan Singletary shined for Penn State Hazleton in the first half, picking up 12 of his 14 total points. Singletary went on to record a double-double with 15 rebounds and also added seven blocks.
“Singletary came out and had all of our shots timed at the rim, which led to so many blocks,” Penn State Schuylkill coach Travis Williams said.
Penn State Hazleton took over in the second half, outscoring Schuylkill 46-32 behind Royce Brathwaite’s 16 points. Brathwaite finished with 23 total points and shot 6-for-6 from the foul line.
Brian Miller also finished with a double-double for Penn State Hazleton. The Mahanoy Area graduate finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds, while fellow Schuylkill County native and North Schuylkill graduate Matt Manbeck saw 10 minutes of playing time.
Derek Dimond led both teams with 26 points, grabbing 12 rebounds for Penn State Schuylkill’s only double-double of the night.
Benioko Harris added 18 points and seven rebounds for Penn State Schuylkill, but it was not enough to get the team past its PSUAC rival.
“It was a shocking loss honestly,” Williams said. “It seemed like something was off for us tonight. I don’t know if it was the big venue or if the pre-game hype got to our heads, but we couldn’t get comfortable at all during the game.”
Game Summaries
At Martz Hall
Women’s Game
PENN STATE HAZLETON (56) — Prutsman 9 0-0 18, Laster 0 0-0 0, Siva-Harrison 1 0-2 2, Nalls 4 0-0 8, Guevara 3 1-1 7, Daly 4 6-7 14, Ferdinand 0 0-0 0, Vincent 0 2-2 2, Dodd 2 1-4 5. Totals 23 10-16 56.
PENN STATE SCHUYLKILL (48) — Moyer 3 0-0 7, Wolff 0 0-0 0, Grasso 3 0-1 7, Druby 1 0-0 3, Warcola 4 3-5 11, Bowen 1 0-0 2, Dolce 5 6-8 16, Sacco 1 0-0 2, Lomax 0 0-1 0, Stewart 0 0-0 0. Totals 18 9-15 48.
Haz (6-1, 1-0) 13 16 15 12 — 56 Sch (2-1, 0-1) 10 11 13 14 — 48
3-point FGs: Moyer, Grasso, Druby
Men’s Game
PENN STATE HAZLETON (81) — Brathwaite 7 6-6 23, Bagner-Gray 0 0-0 0, Richardson 5 1-2 12, Wolfe 0 0-0 0, Nowak 3 3-5 11, Manbeck 0 0-0 0, Kaiser 1 2-2 4, Hobbs 0 0-0 0, Miller 4 1-3 10, DePaolis 3 1-2 7, Singletary 6 2-5 14. Totals 29 16-25 81.
PENN STATE SCHUYLKILL (63) — Jacoby 3 0-3 7, Yost 0 1-2 1, Bracey 4 0-0 9, Dimond 7 8-12 26, Taylor 0 0-0 0, Thompson 1 0-0 2, Harris 6 5-8 18. Totals 21 14-25 63.
Hazleton (2-5, 1-0) 35 46 — 81 Schuylkill (2-4, 0-1) 31 32 — 63
3-point FGs: Brathwaite 3, Richardson, Nowak 2, Miller, Jacoby, Bracey, Dimond 4, Harris