Brandywine Outlasts Wilkes Barre 109-100 In Double Overtime

WILKES BARRE, Pa. -- In a battle of two of the top teams in Penn State University Athletic Conference men's basketball, Monday night's game lived up to the billing as Penn State Brandywine outscored Penn State Wilkes Barre 9-0 during the second overtime period to produce a 109-100, double-overtime road triumph.

Brandywine, playing its first double-overtime game since Nov. 17, 2007 (a 115-111 victory over Bard College), overcame an 11-point, second-half deficit to remain in first place in the PSUAC with a 6-1 record. The Lions sent Wilkes Barre to its second conference loss. The teams entered the night as two of the five squads sitting near the top of the league with one conference loss each.

Three players combined to score 80 of Brandywine's 109 points. Terrence Brown (Philadelphia, Pa./Communications Tech) continued his torrid stretch by recording 33 points on 11-of-18 shooting, along with eight rebounds. Brown, Brandywine's first player to reach 30 points in back-to-back games since Rasheed Wilkins on Dec. 3 and Dec. 4, 2012, averaged 30.3 points during Brandywine's four-game road trip that concluded Monday night.

James Fisher (Philadelphia, Pa./Upper Darby) contributed 24 points, while Isiah Cook (Reading, Pa./Reading) shot 9-for-10 from the free throw line and tallied a career-high 23 points. Cook added 10 rebounds for his first-career double-double and Fisher recorded seven rebounds and six assists.

In addition, Donte Winfield (Philadelphia, Pa./Simon Gratz) chipped in 14 points and Dwayne Coleman (Philadelphia, Pa./Delaware Valley Charter) hauled in nine rebounds.

The high-scoring game went back-and-forth from start to finish as the teams swapped the lead 15 times and were tied on 14 occasions.

With Brandywine trailing 30-27 and 6:59 remaining on the clock in the opening half, Fisher jumpstarted a 10-0 run that propelled the Lions back into the lead. Fisher accounted for eight of Brandywine's 10 points during the surge, including two free throws to cap the run, making the score 37-30.

However, Wilkes Barre answered with a run of its own, netting the game's next 12 points and 16 of the final 20 to end the half as the hosts captured a 46-41 edge entering the break.

Wilkes Barre opened the second period with six-straight points, extending its lead to the largest margin of the night at 52-41. Brandywine steadily chipped away as the Lions received four consecutive points from Brown and a three-pointer off the hands of Cook to reduce the deficit to five points with 12:32 to play in regulation. Cook brought the Lions within one when he sank a layup at the 7:32 mark and then tied the score at 72-72 with a free throw 75 seconds later.

The teams fought back and forth over the final six minutes with neither leading by more than five points. Trailing 86-84 with 20 seconds to play in regulation, the Lions used two free throws from Fisher to force overtime.

Winfield's layup during the first possession of overtime gave Brandywine the lead and Fisher added to it with a triple, but Wilkes Barre rallied to take a one-point lead following back-to-back threes by Kevin Silverberg.

Cook sent Brandywine back in front by converting a three-point play with 62 seconds left and two free throws from Winfield later doubled the lead to 99-95; however, Tomir Gibbs answered with two shots from the charity stripe and, after Cook made 1-of-2 free throws, Silverberg sent the game to a second overtime session by burying his seventh triple of the contest.

The final five minutes belonged to Brandywine as the Lions held Wilkes Barre to 0-5 shooting and forced four turnovers during the host's nine possessions. Winfield's free throw at the 3:52 mark gave the Lions the lead for good and Brown, Cook and Fisher combined for the next eight points to provide the final margin.

Playing its third road game in four days, Brandywine connected on 47 percent of its shots from the field. The Lions sank 35 of their 50 free throw attempts during the game, setting single-game program records for each.

Wilkes Barre, which had five players reach double figures in scoring, was paced by Silverberg's 27 points.

Brandywine (10-5, 6-1 PSUAC) returns to its home court Friday night to face Penn State Beaver at 8:00 pm.