Penn State York's Jayla Brown reaches 1,000-point career milestone

Jayla Brown made Penn State York women’s basketball history over the weekend.

The New Oxford graduate and current Nittany Lions senior reached the 1,000-point career milestone Saturday, becoming just the program’s second player to surpass the threshold. Brown achieved the feat in less than three seasons, as the 2020-21 campaign was canceled, and she reached the mark on her 22nd birthday.

Brown scored 22 points in her milestone performance Saturday as PSY rolled to a 60-38 victory over Penn State Hazleton at the Joe and Rosie Ruhl Student Community Center on campus. She joined Courtney Riggs (2014) as the only York campus players to reach 1,000 career points. Brown was named PSUAC Women's Basketball Player of the Week on Monday.

Penn State York is 16-9 this season following a 69-45 loss at Christendom on Monday night. The Lions are 11-5 in PSUAC play, good for second place in the East division, with three games left in the regular season. The top two finishers in each division will host a first-round conference tournament game on Monday, Feb. 26.

Brown has averaged a team-high 16.2 points per game, along with 5.9 rebounds and 2.3 assists. Fellow senior Desi Garcia-Hernandez is PSY’s other double-digit scorer at 14.2 points a night while leading the Lions with 6.4 boards and 4.4 assists per contest.

After a visit to Penn State Wilkes-Barre on Saturday afternoon, PSY will close its regular season at home against PSU Scranton next Tuesday and PSU Brandywine next Friday.

LION’S DEN

The Penn State York men’s team, also 11-5 in PSUAC play (21-6 overall), controls its own destiny to earn the top seed in the East division following Saturday’s 99-56 rout of PSU Hazleton. The Lions have the same three matchups remaining on their schedule as the women’s squad, and the PSUAC men’s tournament also begins Feb. 26.

Deriq Brown (New Oxford), who became the PSUAC’s all-time leading scorer in December, nailed an impressive seven 3-pointers and finished with 28 points in PSY’s 89-72 win at PSU Schuylkill last Tuesday. His only higher output this season was 35 against PSU Shenango on Dec. 8.

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Penn State York baseball will begin the school’s lone spring season on Feb. 24 at Lancaster Bible College. The Nittany Lions have officially agreed to play 15 games at WellSpan Park this season as part of a three-year agreement with the York Revolution.

SPARTAN STANDOUTS

York College’s Alyssa Hocker (York Suburban) posted her 10th double-double of the season with 20 points and 12 rebounds in the Spartans’ 72-65 home loss to Widener on Tuesday. Central York graduate Georgia Panopolous added a season-high 18 points in that contest.

The Spartan men’s squad saw its MAC Commonwealth tournament hopes take a hit with Tuesday’s 84-62 loss at No. 14 Widener, a game York led 38-34 at halftime. It was the latest brilliant individual showing from Kai Cipalla, though, as the junior tallied 29 points and eight rebounds while playing the full 40 minutes. York’s squads both close the regular season at Hood on Saturday afternoon.

In men’s track and field, senior thrower Andrew Mott was named the MACC Field Athlete of the Week on Monday after finishing second in the shot put at Franklin & Marshall’s Blue and White Invitational last Friday (he topped out at 15.70 meters in the event). Teammates Jack Mahoney (tiple jump) and Aidan Rollinson (weight throw) also had runner-up showings in the Spartans’ final regular-season indoor event.

The men’s lacrosse team opened its 2024 season with an 8-7 home loss against RPI, their first setback in a season opener at home since 2001. Jackson Hines, a freshman from California, scored twice.

A handful of York College fall athletes earned MAC All-Academic honors last week, including volleyball senior Abby Diehl (Dover); field hockey senior Sara Pique and juniors Riley Buschert and Belle Fields; and women’s soccer freshman Meg Kalthof and sophomore Sara Frensley.

LOCAL IMPACTS

Morgan Adams, a former teammate of Jayla Brown at New Oxford, also shined in York on Saturday, putting up 13 points and nine rebounds in Messiah’s 52-39 road win over York College. The senior added 19 points and six boards on Tuesday as the Falcons handled Stevenson to clinch the top seed in the MAC Commonwealth tournament. Adams is averaging 17.8 points and 7.7 rebounds this season.

Penn State’s Tesia Thomas (West York) continued her indoor track and field season with a personal best in the triple jump (41-8.75) to finish sixth overall as the Nittany Lions’ indoor track and field squad competed at the Tiger Paw invite at Clemson. Thomas also placed 12th in the long jump.

Holden Koons (Dallastown) won his singles match in three sets and his doubles match 6-0 as No. 9 Wake Forest men’s tennis topped No. 4 South Carolina on Saturday. It was the Demon Deacons’ second win over a top-10 opponent in their last three matches. Koons, a former James Madison standout, is now 7-1 in singles and 6-0 in doubles at Wake.