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Williamsport defeats Prep Charter in opener

Williamsport has been struggling to close out some games so far due to the inexperience of their roster. After dropping a close one to West Scranton, Williamsport wanted to come out and earn a home win. The Millionaires got one last night in the second game of the Williamsport Holiday Tournament over Prep Charter, 66-57, Friday.

Williamsport will play Paul Public Charter, who won the first game of the night over Christiana High School (Del.), 62-53.

It started off rocky for Williamsport as James Evans-McQuay picked up two early fouls and had to sit for awhile and Prep Charter controlled the offensive glass.

But with Evans-McQuay out someone had to step up and that was Sophomore Kenon Brown. Brown came in and controlled the offense and did a great job of hitting shots when he needed to.

“Kenon plays with an enormous amount of poise for a sophomore. He doesn’t really get rattled, stays under control and I thought he did an excellent job down the stretch keeping us under control and making sure we got into an offense.” said Williamsport coach Allen Taylor.

Another player that played well off the bench was Al-Kabeer Jason.

“Al-Kabeer came in and gave us excellent defense and rebounding off the bench,” said Taylor.

The bench provided great energy and focus all night and the second quarter was a turning point in the game for Williamsport.

Cole Johnson got it started by scoring eight straight points for Williamsport, including two big 3s that gave them the lead. Tyler Fausnaught then hit a 3 to increase the lead by eight.

Nassir Jones was looking for a spark to get the crowd going and he found one as he rose up over a defender and violently threw down a dunk to fire up the crowd inside the Magic Dome.

After that moment, the energy from the Williamsport crowd gave Williamsport a boost to play with the rest of the game. Jones finished with a team-high 19 points and Taylor was impressed with the junior forward.

“We tell Nas all the time that he is a man among boys and not to shy away from contact. He shocked all of us coaches in the gym when he just went down the lane and finished through contact with an and-one, but I was probably more happy that he finished the three-point play instead of just getting a dunk and missing the free throw.”

After Prep got the lead down to six points in the third, it was Brown who stepped up and hit a big time 3-pointer to increase the lead back to nine. Moments later, Brown found a cutting Jones and and then Brown hit his second 3-pointer to put the Millionaires back to a double-digit lead.

The lead never went below double figures again until the very final seconds of the game. The Millionaires will look to keep their momentum going into the championship game of their tournament tonight.

Williamsport 66

Prep Charter 57

WILLIAMSPORT (66)

Ahmir Ellzy 4 0-3 9 Nassir Jones 8 3-5 19 James Evans-McQuay 2 0 0 4 Al-Kabeer Jason 1 0 0 2 Kenon Brown 4 0-2 10 Tyler Fausnaught 3 2-4 9 Marshall Brown 1 1-2 3 Cole Johnson 3 2-3 10. Totals 26 8-19 66.

PREP CHARTER (57)

Kaman Johnson 1 1-2 3 Zymire Young 3 1-1 7 Ahmeer Riddick 0 0-1 0 James Green 15 5-7 35 Rahmeer Miller 1 0 0 2 Michael Wilkins 2 1-2 5 Omar Brown 1 0 0 2 Rashaun Yeiser 1 1-2 3. Totals 24 9-15 57.

Williamsport 10 22 23 11 –66

Prep Charter 12 11 18 16 — 57

3-point goals: Williamsport 6 (Johnson 2, Brown 2, Ellzy 1, Fausnaught 1).

Records: Williamsport (2-5). Next game: Paul Public Charter at Williamsport, tonight, 7:30 p.m.

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