BRADFORD, Pa. – Despite having four players score in double figures, the Pitt-Bradford men's basketball team dropped a tough loss to the No. 14 Wooster Fighting Scots 89-67 at the KOA Arena on Wednesday night.
Senior Keith Burgess led all Panthers in scoring with 16 points. He tacked on three rebounds and was a perfect 5-for-5 from the line. Fellow senior Tyler Fantaskey tallied 13 points and five rebounds, all defensive, to go with his 3-for-3 night from the line.
Junior Eric Matheson registered 11 points, one rebound and three assists to go with two steals. Rounding out the top performers was sophomore Zach Smith. Smith finished with 10 points, five rebounds and two assists.
The difference in the matchup was the strong three-point shooting from Wooster (6-2, 2-1). The Fighting Scots racked up 10 threes, mostly in the first half, to pull away from Pitt-Bradford (3-5, 1-1) in the early goings of the contest.
The Panthers put together a strong effort in the game's opening minutes to hang around with the nationally ranked visitors and trailed by just one point a little over four minutes into the action. It remained a relatively close first half until the 3:31 mark when Smith's foul sent Wooster's Jalen Goodwin to the line.
Goodwin sank both shots to give the Fighting Scots its first run of the contest. The first half closed out with Wooster leading the Panthers, 47-35.
The second half offered little sympathy for the Panthers as the Fighting Scots turned up the heat. The deficit stayed in the 20-plus point range for almost the duration of the second period as Pitt-Bradford had little to no answer for the potent attack presented to them.
As a result, each team cleared its bench in the final minutes to allow for significant playing time to many of the backups. The Fighting Scots iced the game with a free throw as the last 30 seconds ticked away.
The Panthers finished their night shooting 38.6 percent from the field, including 21.1 percent from behind the arc. They shot 73.1 percent (19-for-26) from the line.
Wooster closed out the game shooting 47.5 percent from the floor, including 38.5 percent from three. The fighting Scots shot 85.2 percent (23-for-27) from the stripe.
With the defeat, Pitt-Bradford now breaks for the holidays before returning to the court in two weeks to face Alfred University on Dec. 30 at the KOA Arena. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m.
