From Carnegie Mellon University Athletics
The Carnegie Mellon University men's basketball team
defeated Penn State New Kensington 81-59 on the first day of the
Carnegie Mellon/DoubleTree Invitational held in Skibo Gymnasium
Saturday, November 29. The win improves the Tartans' record
to 6-0 on the season while the Lions move to 1-2.
Early in the first half, Carnegie Mellon's
senior Seth Cordts (Amherst, N.H./Souhegan)
scored five consecutive points to give the home team a 14-12 lead,
one they never relinquished the rest of the game. Cordts'
five straight started a 17-2 Tartan run which put the Cardinal and
Gray on top 26-14 with 8:37 to play in the first stanza.
Carnegie Mellon stayed in control the rest of the half, and pushed
its lead to 35-20 on a transition three-pointer by
sophomore Matt Hillman (Gaithersburg,
Md./Sidwell Friends) from freshman Ryan
Maha (West Mifflin, Pa.) before taking a 37-22 lead into
the break.
The Tartans defense played a huge factor in the first twenty
minutes, as they held New Kensington without a field goal for a 10
minute stretch while the Lion shot 18.2% from the floor to the
Tartans 37.9%.
A three-point bucket by sophomore Jack
Serbin (New Albany, Ohio) to start the second half gave
the Tartans an 18-point lead, but the Lions answered with seven
straight to cut the lead to 40-29 with 17 minutes to play.
That was as close as New Kensington got as the Tartans answered
with a 10-2 run over the next three minutes.
Sophomore James Ormond's (Piedmont, Calif.)
jumper with three minutes remaining in the game gave the home team
its largest lead of the contest at 77-54.
Carnegie Mellon shot 51.5% from the floor in the second half
to finish the game shooting 45.2%, as the Tartans have now shot 45%
or better in each of their first six games. New Kensington
ended the game shooting 31.7%. The Tartans held the edge on
the glass 49-36.
Eleven players scored for Carnegie Mellon with Cordts leading
the way with a game-high 19 points. Serbin finished with 13
while junior Kemal Dincer (Istanbul,
Turkey/Texas Christian University) chipped in with a career-best
12. Sophomore Chris Shkil (Mentor,
Ohio/Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin) led all players with a career-high
11 rebounds while adding a career-best four blocks in the
win. Hillman finished the game dishing out a career-best six
assists.
New Kensington was led by Dorian Broadwater's 17 points while
Shaquille Hager and Jordan Williams each added 15.