Staff writer
jmontecalvo@observer-reporter.com
Noah Hayden has a very befitting nickname. His friends and teammates call him "Sunshine." But Hayden, a freshman on the Washington & Jefferson College men's basketball team, didn't exactly earn the moniker because he has a full head of blond hair.
"I always have a smile on my face and I have lots of energy," said Hayden, a 6-3 guard from Raleigh, N.C. "I play every possession like it's the last. That's the way I've always played and that's how I'll continue to play. That is the way we play basketball here."
Hayden showed that intensity when he came off the bench midway through the first half Monday night and contributed to an 18-4 run that helped the Presidents cruise to a 68-40 non-conference win over Penn State-Fayette at Henry Memorial Center.
In 10 first-half minutes, Hayden scored 10 points and had four rebounds. He drained a three-point field goal and scored four straight points off two rebounds and put-backs. His three-pointer with 4:25 left in the first half extended the lead to 27-13 for the Presidents (2-1).
Hayden, who is one of seven freshman on the W&J roster - six of which are guards - made four of six shots, had three steals and finished with eight rebounds.
"(Hayden) was pretty active," W&J head coach Glenn Gutierrez said. "He got his hands on the ball and created a couple turnovers that led to some easy baskets for us. During that run, though, we weren't able to knock down shots on consecutive possessions. We had to grind it out. Fortunately for us, during that stretch, they weren't scoring."
W&J is playing with a young lineup that includes no seniors. The Presidents are still trying to find a consistent perimeter game and Gutierrez felt there was room for improvement on both the offensive and defensive ends.
"I don't think we shot the ball very well," he said. "We have kids who can shoot it and we had some good looks. They just didn't go down.
"I don't want to diminish our win. Any time you win, and by the margin we did, that's a good thing. But we can't continue to hope the other team just misses shots."
W&J shot 42 percent from the field and made only six of 27 three-pointers.
Still, by the end of the first 20 minutes, the Presidents held a 32-17 lead and had some fans heading home to catch the start of the Steelers game.
Penn State-Fayette (0-4) dressed only seven players and was without leading scorer, Cedric Williams, who is averaging 16 points per game. The Roaring Lions made only 28 percent of their shots.
"W&J plays some aggressive defense and was up in our face," said PSF coach Dana Zajicek, a former standout player at California University when Gutierrez was an assistant coach for the Vulcans in the late 1980s.
"We had a player out and that definitely made a big difference. But we have to stop making turnovers and our defensive intensity has to pick up. It's just all the basics. W&J plays hard, and we have to play with that same level of intensity."
The Roaring Lions tried to take away the Presidents' inside game by mixing a 2-3 zone defense with man-to-man, and throwing in a 1-2-2 in the second half. W&J forward Wahab Owolabi, however, still scored a team-high 13 points and pulled in seven rebounds. Owolabi scored seven points during a 12-2 spurt early in the second half that gave W&J a 25-point lead.
"Wahab did pretty well with limited minutes," Gutierrez said. "He has to be a warrior for us night in and night out. We count on him for a lot and he did a good job."
Freshman guard Albert Varacallo scored 10 points and had 11 rebounds. Varacallo has scored in double figures in each of W&J's games.
Ray Nickens scored a game-high 18 points to pace Penn State-Fayette. Erik Leech had 10 points and 10 rebounds.
"We had a few plays where we got steals and fast breaks or a basket and the foul and their head were down. They mentally checked out," Hayden said of Penn State-Fayette. "Once they were out of it mentally, it was hard to come back physically."
Notes
W&J is 2-1 for the first time since the 2001-02 season. ... After not attempting a free throw in the first half, PSF scored eight of its first 10 points from the line in the second. ... South Fayette graduate Nick Zedreck scored W&J's last five points. ... Trinity's Matt Drakeley started and scored six points with four rebounds. ... Mike Speelman scored 10 points for the Lions.