WESTMINSTER, Md. - McDaniel College men's basketball head coach
Kevin Curley set the program's all-time wins record in a 76-61 victory over Penn State Scranton in the team's season opener Tuesday night inside the Gill Center.
The Green Terror (1-0) have won their last six home openers dating back to the 2018-19 season. They have also won their last four games against teams from the Pennsylvania State University Athletic Conference.
Curley now has 186 career wins in 17 seasons at McDaniel, passing Alex Ober '63 for the most in program history. Ober won 185 games from 1972-83 and 1984-90.
Junior
Jonas Sujeta posted his sixth career double-double and fifth career 20-point game with with 25 points and a career-high 17 rebounds. Graduate student
Chuck Contee had 18 points, eight rebounds and five assists while junior
Mikey Ayala Jr. scored 10 points in his first game with the program.
Sophomore
David Kearney pulled down 10 rebounds and junior
Drew Colman had six points and six rebounds off the bench.
The Nittany Lions (3-2) jumped out to an early 8-4 lead before a 12-0 run gave McDaniel an 18-8 advantage with 11:45 remaining in the first half.
Penn State Scranton closed the gap to two with under five minutes to play in the first half, but a 13-6 spurt gave the Green Terror a nine-point lead before they took a six-point advantage at the break, 39-33.
Sujeta scored two buckets early in the second half before finding Contee for a three-pointer to grow the lead to 48-38 with 16:09 to play.
The Green Terror made six three-pointers in the final 20 minutes compared to just one for the Nittany Lions. Colman hit two threes to give McDaniel its largest lead at 16 with 12:31 left, 56-40.
Penn State Scranton trimmed the deficit to five with four minutes remaining, but a three-pointer by Contee and a three-point play by Sujeta pushed the lead back to 10 with 2:41 to play. A three-pointer by Sujeta with 10 seconds left provided the final margin of victory.
The Green Terror held a 55-18 advantage in rebounds with 21 of those coming on the offensive end and leading to 19 second-chance points. They also hit 43.8 percent of its shots with 11 three-pointers.
McDaniel heads to Hood College on Friday for the Battle of DC/Maryland where it will face St. Mary's (Md.) ini the tournament opener at 7:30 p.m.
