Abington, PA – Men's Basketball picks up United East Conference win over Penn State Abington.

Senior forward Andre Burrell Jr. (Philadelphia, PA /  Burlington Co. Institute of Technology) got things rolling quickly for the Highlanders, bringing in an offensive rebound and scoring a layup on the first Highlander possession before blocking a shot on the other end to keep Penn State Abington (3-15 / 3-4 UNITED EAST) off the scoreboard. Graduate guard Jaylon Simpson (Atlanta, GA / Belmont Abbey) poured it on from for the Highlanders scoring 10 of their next 12 points. Cairn (14-5 / 6-1 UNITED EAST)  went back and forth with Penn State Abington for much of the first half with neither team able to seize control of the game. With just over 5 minutes left in the first half, Cairn went on a 9-0 fueled by graduate guard Chris Hill (Charlotte, NC /  Saint Augustine's University) and graduate guard Byron Gaskins (Woodbridge, VA / Carlow University). This run gave the highlanders the lead and after graduate guard Ron Ayers ( Prince George's County, MD / Stevenson University) and 5th year guard Jonathan Desir (Feasterville, PA / Neshaminy) each tacked on 5 points late in the half the Highlanders closed the first up 48-39. 

Ayers kept his momentum from the end of the first half rolling, scoring Cairn's first 8 points in the second half. Abington made several attempts to shrink the lead, even getting the deficit down to 7 at one point, but each comeback attempt was thwarted by the Highlanders led by Simpson. When the game got down to 7 point, Simpson went on a personal 6-0 run to push the lead back to 13. On another occasion when the Cairn lead was brought down to 9 Simpson sunk a pair of free throws before recording a steal that led to a Desir 3-pointer to put the game back out of reach. Cairn ended the game up 104-83.


The Highlanders continue their United East Conference schedule by hosting Penn State Harrisburg on Saturday January 24th at 1 PM.