Even though the ball dropped almost one week ago, the Golden Eagles rang in 2023 by ringing up a 25-point road win on Friday night. They started strong and ended the same way in both halves of the game, winning on the road at Penn State New Kensington 80-55.
KSU Tusc made a statement early after starting the game with a made free throw before the clock even started. A bookkeeping error with the PSNK lineup led to a technical foul and a subsequent 1-0 Eagles lead, before two Kameron Shockley triples, a two-handed baseline jam by DeJuan Lawrence off a sweet feed from a driving ZaMar Harris, along with a Kyle Shockley 12-foot baseline jumper forced a Lions timeout with the navy and gold leading 11-0.
It took the nearly four and one-half minutes for the hosts to get on the board and the damage was done as the Eagles built a 21-7 lead midway through the quarter. The navy and gold suffered their own four-minute offensive outage moments later and during the power disconnect, the Lions crept to within 22-19 after fashioning a 9-0 run. The Eagles however, responded by tallying the final six points of the opening half to take a 28-19 lead into the locker room.
Managing the same nine-point advantage (32-23) early in the final 20 minutes, the Eagles flexed their muscles on an inbounds pass under their own basket. Kyle Shockley tossed the entry pass high toward the KSU Tusc hoop, where brother Kameron picked it out of the air and rammed home a one-handed slam that even had the locals cheering in awe.
Down 34-23, the Lions made one last surge and drew to within 36-30 with 14:13 left in the game. Then the Eagles reset a breaker and powered up.
In less than 30 seconds, the Eagles expanded their advantage to 11 points behind a Braden Rostad triple from the top of the key and a Kameron Shockley lay up. Rostad rained home two more daggers and added a pair of free throws at the 10:20 mark for an 18-point, 50-32, Golden Eagles lead as they raced ahead.
The lead ballooned to 28 points at 69-41 with 5:44 left to play and the game was well in hand except for the final score.
Rostad led 11 Golden Eagles in scoring with 14 points and made 4/9 three-point attempts. Lawrence recorded his sixth double-double on the season scoring 12 points and clearing 13 boards with three blocked shots, while Kameron Shockley also scored 12 and grabbed six rebounds and London Cobbs chipped in with 10.
The win improved the Eagles record to 10-5 on the season. They host Maine Fort-Kent on Monday at 7pm.
Braden Rostad led the Golden Eagles with 14 points at PSNK.
Cortavion Wilder scored five points off the bench, while DeJuan Lawrence recorded a double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds.
(Photos by Lindsey Nicholson)