Box Score BOX SCORE

Dixie Hills, NY – Sophomore Kian Nixon (Upper Marlboro, MD, , Feather River CC) hit a jumper with two seconds remaining to lift the Cheyney University men's basketball to a 73-71 victory over host Five Towns College on Wednesday night in Dixie Hills, NY.

Cheyney, coming off a Jabril Baxter (Philadelphia, PA, Academy at Palumbo HS) buzzer beating half-court shot in the victory over Penn State Lehigh Valley on Jan. 11, held the Sound scoreless for over six minutes to erase a 17-point second half deficit. The Wolves have won three out of four games in 2023 and improved to 5-12 on the season, while the Sound fell to 4-10.

Nixon paced Cheyney with a career-high 26 points and a team-best nine rebounds, Junior Jordan McCants (Cleveland, OH, , Lorain County CC) connected on four three-pointers in scoring a career-high 16 points. The Wolves, who trailed by as many as 20 points in the game, got contributions from all seven player who played in the game.

Sophomore Nathan Rosario (Philadelphia, PA, Parkway HS) scored nine points, with two rebounds, two assists, two blocks and an assist, classmates Nathan Pettus Jr (Philadelphia, PA, Hill Freedman World Academy HS). and Baxter each scored eight points, with Pettus Jr grabbing eight boards, with two steals and two assists, while Baxter had five rebounds, two assists and an assist.

Another sophomore, Chris Harmon-Belcher (Philadelphia, PA, Cheltenham HS) dished out a career-high six assists, grabbed six caroms with two steals and freshman Dut Kuol (Aweil, South Sudan, Olympus Prep HS) scored four points and grabbed four rebounds.

Five Towns scored the games first six points and jumped out to a 14-2 lead after five minutes. The Sound took advantage of 10 Wolves turnovers and built the lead to 42-22. McCants connected from downtown to start a 9-2 run to close out the half and pull Cheyney to within 13, 44-31 at the break.

McCants connected on three triples and led Cheyney with 11 points, and Rosario who scored four points, had a steal, a block and rebound in the final 1:37 of the half, added seven points and Harmon Belcher dished out five assists in the first 20 minutes.

The first ten minutes of the second half saw the Sound keeping the Wolves at arms lengths as they built the lead back up to 17 at 61-44 with 10:27 to play.

The Wolves started to chip away with tip in from Pettus Jr., a three-point play from Nixon, was part of a personal six-point run, followed by a Baxter jump shot, then a steal from Pettus Jr., led to a Rosario layup and he was fouled.

Rosario converted the three-point play to pull Cheyney within 61-56 at the 6:36 mark of the second half. Two Nixon baskets sandwiched around a basket form Pettus Jr., gave Cheyney its first lead of the game 62-61 with 4:30 showing on the clock.

Cheyney had scored 18 straight points in just under six minutes. The Sound finally scored with a pair of free-throws at the 4:13 mark.

A contest that saw no lead changes over the first 36 minutes, went on the see-saw with seven consecutives lead changes, before a free-throw from the Sound evened the game at 68-68 with 2:39 to play.

Pettus Jr. gave Cheyney its largest lead of the game with a layup with 1:56 to go, a Nixon free-throw made it 71-68 at the 1:12 mark.

Five Towns tied the game at 71-71 on a three-point shot form Eian Williams, who led all players with 29 points, with 22 seconds remaining.

The Wolves called a time out and Nixon, who tied the game a week ago on a basket with 3.2 seconds left, connected on a jumper with :02 left to play to propel Cheyney to its second straight come from behind last second victory.

Nixon scored 18 second half points and pulled down eight board, Pettus Jr.  made all four of his shot attempts to tally all eight of his points with six rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block.

The Wolves outscored the Sound 42-27 and held Five Towns to only 27.6% shooting (8-29) from the field, while making half of its shots 16-32 attempts in the final 20 minutes.

Next up, Cheyney will host a double header on Sunday January 22, vs Bryant & Stratton (Buffalo). The women open the action at 1 PM, followed by the men's contest slated for a 3 PM tipoff inside of Cope Hall.