By The Beacon Sports Staff

As the fall season lingers with a welcomed extended stay in Southern Maine, the SMCC women’s and men’s basketball teams opened the season on Saturday against Penn State University Greater Alleghany. The Alleghany team traveled close to 700 miles to take to the court with the intents of grabbing 2 wins against the Seawolves on Saturday. On Sunday the Nittany Lions traveled to Auburn to play the Mustangs of Central Maine Community College.

The Nittany Lions, Mustangs and SMCC are all members of the USCAA, a national organization for athletic programs from 81 small, community, and juniorcolleges. Schools from Washington State to Maine are members of the organization.

The USCAA website states that the organization, “exists to provide small colleges the opportunity to compete against like institutions in size and resource for National Championships and student-athlete recognition…the USCAA allows its members the opportunity to enhance their recruiting capabilities by way of more consistent national recognition and a level playing field for post-season competition.”

Saturday’s basketball games proved to be a wonderful opportunity for basketball fans in Southern Maine to see talented players from another part of the country. The Lady Lions came into Saturday’s game with a 1-1 record winning against Central Penn 77-43 and dropping a close game to Westmoreland County Community College 70-64. The men’s team entered Sunday’s game with a 0-1 regular season record dropping a tight game to Westmoreland County Community College 75-72, while winning 2 exhibition games.

After three and a half minutes of play the Lady Seawolves had jumped out to an 8-0 lead behind the scoring of Amira Jones, Alicia Hoyt and Jordan Turner. The Lady Nittany Lions would never get any closer than five points a few minutes later, as intense defensive play by the Wolves and the absence of a sustained offensive attack by the Lions prevented any serious challenge.

Defensively, Abigail Nielsen took control by limiting Nittany Lion Mandi Johnson to 9 total points (2-9 from the field and 5-6 from the free throw line). Ms Johnson came into to Saturday’s game averaging a staggering 27.5 points per game. After 10 minutes of play the Lady Seawolves had built a 25-12 lead holding the Nittany Lions to 19.51% shooting from the field (2 and 3 pointers), while the Seawolves shot an impressive 22-45 from both the two, and three pointland (48.89%).

The second quarter saw SMCC continue to build a double-digit lead as three Seawolves posted 11 points each (Amira Jones, Alicia Hoyt and Hannah Heald). After 20 minutes of play the Lady Wolves held a 22 point lead (45-23) and were well on their way to posting their third win of this young season.

Jordan DeRosby finishes off a play in which he missed a 3point shot, grabbed the rebound of his own missed shot and finish the play with a drive to the basket.

Statistical highlights from the game include: 47% shooting from the field, as the Seawolves post-players netted a combined 58 points and grabbed 23 rebounds.

Individually, Abagail Nielsen recorded her first double-double as she tallied 12 points and handed out 10 assists which was complimented by 7 rebounds.

A week ago Saturday, the SMCC basketball teams traveled to Newport, Rhode Island to play Navy Prep. The Lady Wolves lost to the Rams of Navy Prep in best what could be described as a car with square wheels. The Lady Wolves shot a dismal 3-13 from the charity stripe, 19-67 from the field and 1-21 from beyond the 3-point line.

SMCC guard Jordan Turner drives to the hoop in Saturday’s action against the Nittany Lions of Penn State Greater Allegheny. Jordan finished with 9 points, 9 rebounds and 4 assist.

Through all of the dismal play, the Lady Wolves managed to trail by 1 at half and grabbed a 2 point lead at the end of the 3rd quarter 33-31.

The last 10 minutes of play saw SMCC unable to reach double figures scoring wise while the Lady Rams were able to drain 15 points in route to a 4 point victory. Not a single Lady Wolve managed to score in the double-digits, which surely added to their woes in Newport.

Approximately 30 minutes after the Lady Wolves walked off the court with their largest margin of victory this season against Penn State, the men tipped off and started what has to be one of the most exciting games of this season.

The Nittany Lions took to the floor with a high-energy offense designed to push the ball up court catching the defense flat-footed, add to the mix a constantly harassing defense, the Lions were able to build a 13 point lead with a little more than 7 minutes remaining in the first half.

What was a sluggish start that lasted for the opening 13 minutes of play for the Seawolves turned into an offensive outburst that saw the Wolves regroup, outscoring the Lions 26-9, which resulted in a 4 point lead (43-39) as the game went into intermission.

Alicia Hoyt, Seawolve center finds room underneath against an undersized Nittany Lion squad. Hoyt finished the day with 17 points and 8 rebounds.

First-half statistical highlights include: SMCC shooting 43.185 from the field (16- 34 for two point shots, 3-10 from beyond the three point line), and going perfect from the foul line (8-8). On the Penn State side the Lions shot 33% from the field, making 13 out of 40 two point shot attempts, going 6-17 from three pointland, and 7-13 from the foul line.

Penn State also held the edge in team statistics like steals, as the Lions stole the ball 9 times to SMCC’s 3 and forced SMCC to commit 13 turnovers to their own 7.

The second half opened with both teams going after the other offensively as SMCC would build a modest lead (8 points) only to see the Lions get to within one at the 14:48 mark (55-54).

The Wolves would respond by rattling off 11 straight points building a 12 point lead (66-54) on the backs of Jack Tolan who drained six straight points and Greyson Waterman’s 3 point shot.

After two free throws and a layup cut the Seawolves lead to 8, SMCC’s Finish connection Ville Wuorenjuuri and Greyson Waterman drained consecutive 3 pointers bookending a Nittany Lion layup, which padded the Wolves lead to 12 again (72-60).

Over the next 5 minutes of play SMCC would expose a weakness in the Nittany Lion defense, as Jordan DeRosby would find a seam to the basket making 3 layups, the last of which was made after he rebounded his own missed 3 point shot attempt cut to the basket and made a right to left reverse layup with his back to the basket. The basket pushed SMCC’s lead to 14 with 4:41 to go.

The last 4 minutes of the contest were hectic as Penn State pushed their defense up a level forcing SMCC to commit 5 turnovers. The Nittany Lions would outscore the Wolves 22-12, but ultimately fall short of an incredible come from behind win as they missed needed shoots and committed untimely fouls sending SMCC to the line where Jack Tolan, Jordan DeRosby, Greyson Waterman, Ville Wuorenjuuri and Thiwat Thiwat went a collective 8 for 9.

On the Penn State end of the court, Jashaun Fontanez turned in a stellar performance as he scored 13 points down the stretch. Curtis Newby added 6 points, which also helped the Lions crawl within two (94-92) with 37 seconds remaining. In the end, Jack Tolan’s two made free throws sealed the win for SMCC leveling their record at 2-2, as last minute and last second hustle failed to pan out for the Lions.

The win over Penn State Greater Allegheny should be an affirmation for the Seawolves, as they see their potential as a team. The win counters the early season overtime loss to UNB Saint John’s in the CanAm tournament, and the loss suffered in Newport at the hands of Navy Prep, in which the Wolves found themselves trailing 24-0 to the Rams. The Wolves did come back against the Rams posting 82 points but falling well short of Navy Prep’s 100.

For the Nittany Lions, Sunday’s action in Auburn against Central Maine Community College would see the women’s team lose 73-50 and the men dropping another hard fought game 73-70. The Beacon wishes the Nittany Lions the best of luck for the rest of the season. It would be fun meeting up in the USCAA Nationals.

The SMCC women’s soccer team traveled to Warren Wilson College outside of Asheville, NC to participate in this years USCAA Nationals. Unfortunately the Lady Wolves dropped the play-in game for the tournament, 1-0 against Carlow University. The trip to the USCAA Nationals was a first for the Lady Wolves. Joining SMCC at the Nationals were University Maine-Machias and University Of Maine-Fort Kent. SMCC did not fair as well as they had hoped in North Carolina, as they also lost the consolation game for the losers of the play-in game to Warren Wilson College 2-0. It is the University of Maine-Fort Kent women’s soccer team that all Mainers should be proud of as they captured the 2015 USCAA Championship with a 7-0 drubbing of Albany College of Pharmacy and Health (ACPH) in Saturday’s championship game.

Fort Kent’s path to the championship started with an 8-0 spanking of University of Maine-Machias, who beat Warren Wilson in the second play-in game, next posting a 6-0 win over Bryant and Stratton, and finishung with the win over ACPH.

Congratulations to the Fort Kent squad for posting a stellar season by going 20-2, for winning their last 10 games of the season, having a 14 game winning streak, and out scoring opponents 134-12. And finally, congratulations to the Lady Wolves for posting a 10-3-2 record, which is the best record to date in the programs history.