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HAMBURG, N.Y. – A high-flying Penn College men’s basketball team dropped a 105-98 season-opener at Hilbert on Friday night in the first game of the Hilbert Tip-Off Tournament. The Wildcats racked up 67 second-half points and finished the night with 54 points in the paint, but the Hawks held a 31-22 edge in points off turnovers. The Wildcats start 0-1, and the Hawks moved to 1-0.
Penn College’s main first-half push came midway through the half, when they used a 10-0 run from 14:00 to 11:56 to turn a 9-6 deficit into a 16-9 lead behind scoring from Peyton Murphy, Alex Cercado and Neyshawn Mabry. Hilbert answered later in the half, and PCT went into halftime trailing 44-31. The Wildcats shot 11-of-25 with eight assists, while Hilbert held a 22-16 rebounding edge and scored 13 points off turnovers.
In the second half, PCT scored 67 points by going 23-for-38 from the field and 5-for-5 from 3-point range. Colby Bost’s fast-break 3-pointer made it 97-92 with 1:48 left, and Cercado’s layup brought the Wildcats within 99-94 at 1:08. Clyde Frasier’s two free throws made it 103-98 with 14 seconds remaining, but Hilbert added two free throws with eight seconds left to hold on for the 105-98 final.
Murphy scored a team-high 29 points. He shot 10-of-14 from the field and added six rebounds, five assists and two steals. Cercado finished with 20 points and added four assists and two steals. Frasier posted 19 points, five rebounds, four assists and two blocks. Joe Savage finished with 11 points and collected a team-high seven rebounds.
Jaden Mitchell led Hilbert with 28 points, Ari Jones scored 25 points and Jayden Montgomery posted 20 points to lead the Hawks.