Penn Highlands second half rally leads to 97-93 overtime win

Dec. 2—KEYSER, W.Va. — After trailing at halftime, Pennsylvania Highlands took the lead early in the second half and held on to win 97-93 in overtime over WVU Potomac State College on Thursday at Lough Gymnasium.

"We played down to our opponent tonight," Potomac State head coach Ryan Streets said. "Hats off to them, they came to play. We didn't come to play, we were sleep walking that whole entire game. We were lucky to even go into overtime."

The Black Bears (2-2, 1-1 NJCAA Region 20) shot 45.3% from the field and 31% from three. The Catamounts (2-7, 0-2 NJCAA Region 20) shot 40.4% from the field and 26.9% from deep.

Potomac State took the lead early in the game and held it for the first 20 minutes. After a back-and-forth start with both teams exchanging scores, Penn Highlands led 19-15 midway through.

The Catamounts went on a 13-4 run to lead by five with nine minutes left. It was highlighted by an alley-oop dunk from Juliyen Johnson off a steal and lob from Shawn Baker.

"We started moving the ball more," Streets said. "We started playing unselfish and that's what happens. We were getting stops on defense."

Penn Highlands outscored Potomac State 17-15 late to cut their deficit to three. In the final two minutes, the teams were held to three points each. The Catamounts led 46-43 at halftime.

"They wanted it more than us," Streets said. "You look and watch back the film, I'm sure they get every 50-50 ball. They got a lot of second chance points. Their guys aren't standing around like we do when the ball goes up."

Joziah Wyatt-Taylor grabbed three offensive rebounds early in the second half for the Black Bears. He would finish a layup after the third rebound for his team's first points of the half. Penn Highlands outscored the Catamounts 4-3 in the first minute to lead 47-46.

"It came down to the ball movement," Streets said. "We were dribbling too much, we were taking shots too early in the shot clock. We weren't working to get the best shot that we could possibly get."

Potomac State regained the lead at 51-50 with 17 minutes to go. It led most of the second half and by seven midway through.

The Catamounts led 69-62 with 7:40 to go, but the Black Bears responded with a 17-8 run. It gave them their first lead of the second half since the 19-minute mark with 1:47 left.

"We stopped playing hard, we just wanted to cakewalk through this," Streets said. "They just wanted it more than us."

Potomac State had three misses on the same possession late that forced it to begin fouling. K'Marion Dowe had several clutch plays for the Catamounts late in the game. The first came with 12.8 seconds left in the second half. He converted an and-one layup to tie it at 83.

The teams each missed their opening shot of overtime. Offensively, the Catamounts couldn't hit late in overtime. In the final minute, they missed four shots and only scored two points.

"All night we just didn't get the shots we wanted," Streets said. "The shots just weren't falling. We missed probably 30 layups tonight."

Dowe came up with a clutch steal and coast-to-coast layup to cut Potomac State's deficit to 96-93 with 13.2 seconds left. Baker missed two 3s that would've tied the game in the final seconds before the clock ran out.

Johnson led all scorers with 34 points and also had 12 rebounds. He shot 15 of 26 from the field.

"Juliyen's been our go-to all season," Streets said. "He's a work horse, great player, great athlete. We need a few more of those buckets to go and it could be a different outcome."

Cayden Faucett scored 22 points with five rebounds. Faucett hit five shots from beyond the arc on 12 attempts.

"We relied on him coming off the bench. He usually gives us a spark," Streets said. "He did that tonight, kinda went a little cold in the second half. But I thought overall it was a pretty good effort."

Dowe had 14 points with three rebounds. Tre' Segar also had a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Five Black Bears finished in double figures. Wyatt-Taylor scored a game-high 28 points with 14 rebounds. Drew Tapscott had 22 points and six rebounds. Izir Britt finished with 16 points and five rebounds, and Devin Lewis and Jamar Wilson each had 13 points.

Penn Highlands hosts Westmoreland County on Saturday at noon. Potomac State travels to face Jamestown on Sunday at 5 p.m.

"It comes down to playing hard and coming ready to play," Streets said of the keys to beating the Jayhawks. "We weren't ready to play today. It was plain and simple, we just didn't come to play."

Jordan Kendall is a Sports Writer for the Cumberland Times-News. Follow him on Twitter @JKendallCTN.