LANGHORNE, PA – Men's Basketball opened conference play with a victory on Wednesday night, 94-75 over the rival Keystone Giants.
 
Graduate guard Ron Ayers (Prince George's Co., MD / Stevenson) was on fire off the tip, going 3-3 from behind the arc in the first four minutes of play, setting Cairn (6-2 / 1-0 UNITED EAST) up with an eight-point lead and forcing an early timeout out of the Giants. After that break in the action, graduate guard Byron Gaskins (Woodbridge, VA / Carlow) was the hot hand, knocking down a pair from deep as a layup by classmate Corey Baldwin (Henderson, NC / Averett) to grow the lead to ten. Fellow graduate guard Chris Hill (Charlotte, NC / St. Augustine's University) completed a three-point-play after his layup with Baldwin knocking down two more shots as the uphill battle for Keystone (1-6 / 0-1 UNITED EAST) was now at fifteen.
 
Baldwin, freshman guard Brady Murray (Reading, PA / Exeter) and Ayers all hit threes in the closing minutes with Cairn on their way to doubling the lead. Three layups for the Giants cut the lead down to sixteen as Baldwin ended the half on a three and a 52-33 lead at the break.
 
Senior forward Andre Burrell, Jr. (Philadelphia, PA / Burlington Co. Tech) and Baldwin were the face of the Highlander offense to open the second half, Baldwin scoring twice before hitting a three and Burrell adding two layups to keep the advantage at eighteen through the first seven minutes. Hill added a bucket before Keystone battled back and got the lead down to ten. Graduate guard Jaylon Simpson (Atlanta, GA / Belmont Abbey) gave Cairn two layups amid the comeback, Baldwin knocking down his fourth three of the night as the Highlander lead shrunk to nine.
 
After a responsive layup from Burrell, Simpson hit three-straight triples to push things back to a safe eighteen-point margin as the Giants went cold, ending the night with a 94-75 win.
 
Baldwin, Simpson, and Ayers led all scorers with 26, 23, and 20 points, respectively. Baldwin shot 4-9 from deep and 11-17 from the floor, dishing out four assists. Simpson had all three of his three-balls late in the second half, getting him over twenty points for the sixth time this season. Ayers also had four three-pointers and as many assists as he went 50% from the field on the night. Hill finished with a career-high tying 10 assists along with four steals and six boards.
 
Despite the result, it was a good shooting night on both ends as both squads shot above 50% from the field.
 
The Highlanders will head out to Chambersburg on Saturday to faceoff with the Wilson College Phoenix on Saturday at 1 p.m.