SALEM, Va.—The Newport News Apprentice men's basketball team came from behind late in the second half to defeat the Worcester State University Lancers 58-54 in a Saturday evening (Nov. 19) matchup in the Dick Leftwich Tip-Off Tournament consolation game.
The Newport News Apprentice offense was lead by Zach Johnson (Suffolk, Va.) with 26 points shooting 11-for-21 from the field. William Wilcox (Cocoa Beach, Fla.) led Apprentice School with 13 rebounds while teammate Jalen Ruffin (Suffolk, Va.) recorded eight boards. Adding to the Newport News Apprentice's effort was Sam Morris (Baton Rouge, La.) who managed three steals.
Worcester State was led by Jamal Mustapha (Worcester, Mass.) and Austin Keeler (Holyoke, Mass.) who each scored 11 and 10 points, respectively. Senior forward Jeremy Bacon (Milford, Mass.) and sophomore forward Aaron Maday (Worcester, Mass.) earned seven boards a piece. Freshman guard Cal Howes (Maynard, Mass.) scored nine points scoring three of five three-point attempts.
Newport News Apprentice took the first lead of the game 30 seconds into play when Johnson made a jump shot. Worcester State answered just 40 seconds later when Marquez McKreith-Collins (Springfield, Mass.) got an offensive rebound and made a layup, tying the score 2-2. In the next two minutes of play Johnson made two more layups giving Newport News Apprentice a 6-2 lead.
The Builders held the lead throughout the majority of the first half, until Worcester State saw their first of the game on a Mustapha layup with 7:44 remaining in the half. The teams would battle back-and-forth for the remainder of the half, however Worcester gained a 30-24 lead going into the intermission as the Lancers drained two more three's in the last three minutes and Ryan DiBernardo (Springfield, Mass.) ended the stanza with a jump shot.
The Lancers maintained their lead into the second half until the final five minutes of play when Newport News Apprentice's Johnson netted a jump shot, giving Apprentice their first lead of the second half with a score of 49-48. Worcester State managed to score six more points before the end of the game, but Newport Apprentice held off the Lancers' offense and sealed the win with free throws from
Taaron White (Newport News, Va.).
The Lancer's bench came up big with 26 points as Newport News Apprentice shot 31.3% from the three-point line.
The Lancers will resume play on Tuesday November 22, when they host WPI at 5:30 PM.
All-Tournament Team
Jamal Mustapha, Worcester State
Zach Johnson, Apprentice
Josh Dudley, Ferrum
Josh Grimard, Ferrum
Eli Sumpter, Roanoke
John Caldwell, Roanoke (MOP)