The matchup between the Centurions and Harrisburg Hawks on Saturday, Feb. 4, was not for the faint of heart as both teams had to scratch and claw for points for much of the contest. The Centurions were looking to avenge a loss last semester and the Hawks were looking to keep their playoff hopes alive. Something had to give.

That something turned into a someone as guard Emmanuel Pittman gave his team 21 points and helped secure a 79-70 victory over the Hawks. Not to be forgotten in the contest was Hawks Demond Bates, who scored a game high 30 points in a losing effort.

When the game kicked off Sat. afternoon, it appeared that the Hawks did not appear to possess a big man to contend with the Centurion’s center Tariq Benn and that might prove costly. Regardless of that the first half did not offer too many 2nd chance points for either team.

The Hawks appeared to try and get out on the fast break whenever possible and Harrisburg coach Randy Tobias confirmed that thinking when he said later, “Yeah, that is one of our strengths and we try to use that to help compensate for lack of a big man.”

The Centurions were just exchanging baskets with the hawks for most of the first half, but seemed to have gotten going when they when ahead 24-17 with under ten minutes to play. Some 3 point by the Hawks got the game even again at 24 with five minutes left. Centurion players Emmanuel Pittman and David May combined to score three straight baskets before the half to give the Centurions some breathing room with the score 36-32.

Centurion Coach Steve Coyne fired up his team with some pep talk during the break and they proceeded to come out on a 18-5 scoring run. When asked what he told his team Coyne said, “I just told to go out and give me 20 minutes of really good basketball” he said afterwards.

All phases of the Centurion team stepped up, but with the Centurion bench players in the Hawks made a run and narrowed the score to 57-53. The bench stayed ahead though lead by forward Andrew Cave, who did not score a lot of points, but did drive to the hoop and draw a few fouls.

The bench then exited a short while later to an ovation from the home crowd and the starters came back in to handle business. The Centurions went on to win the game, but a guy that sealed it was point guard Sean Ritter.

Ritter was sent to the foul line on two or three occasions in the last minute of the game and calmly knocked down the free throws to place the dagger in the heart of the Hawks.

Ritter said afterwards, “We won, but honestly the other team was undermanned and we really should have blown them out of the water. It is nice that we have gotten better at closing out games in the second half of our season.”

Centurion coach Steve Coyne was in high spirits when he said, “I think we played good, we had some lapses, but we were able to go out there and get it done.”

Harrisburg coach Randy Tobias said on his teams play, “It was a good game, defensively we played really well, but our offense needs some work. We are starting to peak as a team and we try to instill in these guys that defense wins championships.”

One of Tobias’s best players that night Demond Bates said afterwards, “We played tough as a team, but we just were not able to keep up with them tonight.”

Centurion bench guard Michal Desiderio said, “We played good, it was a tough game, but we have to stop scaring our crowd after we get a big lead like we did tonight.”