VTC Wins Second Straight YSCC Title

Auburn, ME – The men's title game of the YSCC Tournament paired the Knights of VTC against the Lynx of NHTI.  The Lynx, who held the #1 ranking for a majority of the season showed why early as they ran to a 19-12 lead halfway through the first half.  With a distributed scoring effort, NHTI would continue to keep their foot on the gas, but it seemed for every basket scored by the Lynx, Brandon Matano of VTC would counteract on the opposite end for the Knights.  Matano was all over the floor creating his own shot, and often times creating shots for a teammate.  Deep 3 after deep 3, Matano showed as pure of a jumper as there is along with a very high basketball IQ.  At the half, VTC trailed 31-33.  Brandon Matano had 13 points for the Knights and Ahntawn Harris led the Lynx with 7.

The second half certainly mirrored the first.  Both teams played with a refuse to lose attitude and battled back and forth for the entire period.  In true Championship fashion, neither squad looked as if they could be on the short end of the stick at games end.  With roughly 8 minutes remaining, led by a Brandon Matano go ahead 3 pointer, VTC began to widen their lead.  By the 6 minute mark the lead was at 8 in favor of the Knights.  After two huge 3 point baskets from Kyle Kissenberth, the VTC lead was 11 with 4 minutes to go.  Key free throws and rebounding down the stretch helped the Knights effort, and when the final buzzer sounded it was VTC on top of NHTI 80-66 to win their second straight YSCC Championship.  Brandon Matano led the Knights with 22 points, Kyle Kissenberth added 19, Alex Tyrell had 14, and Josh Lindsey with 12.  Leading NHTI was Besfort Syla with 14 points, Jackson Riel with 12, Ahntawn Harris with 11, and Terry Williams with 10.  VTC will now travel to Pennsylvania to play in the USCAA National Tournament.