Bradford, PA. -- The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford men's basketball team kept its unblemished start alive on Saturday, defeating Hilbert in the AMCC Game of the Week. The Panthers trailed fo117-r only 27 seconds as they won the game 117-103.
The Hawks opened the game with a three, but the Panthers answered right back with a long ball from Braylen Salters tying the game. The teams exchanged layups and threes before two Hilbert free throws gave the visitors a 10-8 lead after two minutes of action. Salters quickly answered with a layup and a few minutes later, Keshon Kittrell gave Pitt-Bradford the lead, which they would never relinquish.
The game remained within one possession until the 12-minute mark when Jamarion Butler made a midrange jump shot that started an 11-0 run for the Panthers. Butler scored 7 points in the run, including a three-point play, and assisted a Kittrell layup. Hilbert responded with an 8-point rally of their own, but it ended with a Coby Farley free throw and a layup by Xavion Boone.
Hilbert whittled the Pitt-Bradford lead down to 5 points with 3:40 remaining in the half before Robert Richards started a run to end the half. he drew a foul and made both free throws, before making a layup after a defensive stop. A few minutes later, Salters made a layup after a steal in the backcourt and hit two free throws to push the advantage back to 13. In the final minute, the Panthers were outscored 6-1, sending the game to halftime with Pitt-Bradford leading 57-49.
After the break, the Panthers turned the Hawks over seconds into the half and quickly turned it into a fast break layup for Salters. The visitors made a three and two free throws around a Butler layup, but Pitt-Bradford quickly answered with back-to-back corner threes from Kittrell and Salters. Pitt-Bradford slowed after the pair of longballs and Hilbert slowly cut away at the lead, trimming it to 5 points with 14:30 remaining. The Panthers responded to a timeout by Head Coach Jesse DeLoof and made consecutive layups before answering a Hilbert jumper with a three by Farley.
Following another timeout, the Panthers whipped the home crowd into a frenzy with consecutive highlight plays. Butler grabbed a rebound off of a missed jumper and began moving down the court he kept his head up and saw Rodd Yarbrough open near the basket. Butler sent a lob to Yarbrough who caught it and slammed it home for an alley-oop. On the subsequent possession, Butler took advantage of a misplayed Hilbert pass and stole the ball. Before falling out of bounds he flipped it behind his back toward midcourt, where Yarbrough outjumped a Hilbert player for the pass. Yarbrough then went on a 2-on-1 and lobbed another alley-oop, this time to Jesse Laster who threw it down resulting in a 14-point edge.
From that point, thePanthes maintained their double-digit lead for the remainder of the game. The lead grew to its largest at 19 points at the 6:25 mark. Xander Norris started an 8-2 run with a three, and then after Salters finished an alley-oop from Laster, he made another long three to put the Panthers ahead 103-84. Pitt-Bradford made 10-12 from the line down the stretch to go along with two Yarbrough layups to put the game away.
Braylen Salters led all scorers with 35 points. He made 12 of 23 from the field, including 4-10 from three and 7-9 from the line. He also had 4 rebounds and 5 steals. Jamarion Butler had another stat sheet-filling performance. He finished with a double-double, scoring 23 points, while gathering 10 rebounds. He also tallied 5 assists and 7 steals. Rodd Yarbrough scored 17 points off the bench, making 8-12 from the field. Keshon Kittrell added 14, including 3 threes.
The win moves the Panthers to 8-0 and to the top of the AMCC standings with a 2-0 record in conference play. They will take the next two weeks off for the holidays, before returning to action just before the new year. They will head to Wooster to play in the Wooster Kiwanis Classic, where they will face a tough task with a game against the hosts, Wooster, on the 29th and then Case Western Reserve on the 30th.
