Keystone Holds Off Brandywine 85-71

MEDIA, Pa. -- Penn State Brandywine rallied from a double-figure deficit to take a second-half lead, but Keystone College ran away late, topping the Lions 85-71 on Saturday afternoon.

Aided by nine points from Boston Caldwell, Keystone claimed an 11-0 lead and led by as many as 12 points during the first half before Brandywine made a late rally.

The Giants owned an 11-point edge when Ben Bass (Arlington, Va./Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School) sank back-to-back jumpers to jumpstart the rally. Amari Little (Ellicott City, Md./Marriotts Ridge) and Jamar Wright (Wilmington, Del./Conrad School for Science) added buckets before Dillon Jones' (Wilmington, Del./Hodgson Vo-Tech) layup capped a 10-0 surge that brought the Lions within one.

Brandywine tied the count at 32-32 following a pair of free throws from Jaden Fogg (Morrisville, Pa./Morrisville), but Keystone scored six of the final eight points of the half to claim a 38-34 edge at intermission.

The Lions outscored Keystone 7-0 during the first 80 seconds of the second half as Joey Brusha (Abington, Pa./Abington) buried a triple, Fogg sank two free throws and Little tacked on a layup to give Brandywine a 41-38 edge.

Caldwell answered with consecutive three-pointers for the Giants, but Brandywine again mounted a rally near the midway point of the half. Fogg converted a three-point play to cut the Giants' six-point edge in half and Little brought Brandywine within one with a pair of free throws at the 12:17 mark. After a Keystone basket, Jones and Brusha canned back-to-back triples in the span of 34 seconds to put Brandywine back on top.

However, Tyler Fox responded with the next eight Keystone points as the visitors went back in front. Little closed the margin to four by burying a triple at the 5:47 mark, but Keystone used an 11-4 run, fueled by two Caldwell triples, to build a 10-point lead and the Giants pulled away late.

Little and Brusha both connected for a trio of three-pointers as Little paced the scoring effort with 17 points and Brusha netted nine points. Fogg contributed as 14-point, 10-rebound double-double and Jones added eight points, five rebounds and two blocked shots, while Bass notched eight points and nine rebounds.

Caldwell canned seven of Keystone's 11 three-pointers and scored a game-high 30 points for the Giants.

Brandywine (3-14, 0-8 UEC) is back at home Wednesday to host Penn College at 7:30 PM.