The Pratt Community College men's basketball program held the first ever Pratt Men's Classic during the first weekend of November. Four different teams including PCC participated in the event. The Beavers competed in two different games that marked the start of their 2018 season.
The blue and white got their first victory of the year over Kansas Wesleyan University Junior Varsity. A 106-54 win opened the door to Pratt's undefeated week. The Beavers looked poised in their season-opening game as they scored as many points in just the first half as Kansas Wesleyan did the entire game.
Sophomore guard Blake Furcron guided the Beavers offensively with a game-high in scoring (24 points). Not far behind his teammate was forward Charles Brown with 22 points of his own. PCC had five athletes with double-digit scoring numbers during the night and made 26 more field goals as a team than the opposition.
The opportunity to put up more shots came from efforts on the defensive end. Kansas Wesleyan gave up 24 turnovers during the 40 minutes of play. Pratt came away with 15 steals on the night which gave them significantly more possession time offensively. Four-fifths of the team's takeaways came by way of Furcron and guard Tyvon Taylor who both had 4 steals apiece.
Beaver-basketball action continued the day following the contest against Kansas Wesleyan. Pratt proceeded to take on Next Level Hoops Academy. Momentum from the night before carried over for the Beavers. Pratt took down Next Level 78-70.
PCC trailed initially. Pratt found themselves on the wrong end of a 37-27 score at the end of the first half. Hot hands from the 3-point arc helped Next Level achieve a short-lived 10-point lead.
The second half of action proved to be a different story with Pratt outscoring their foes 55-33 during the last 20 minutes of the game. Furcron led all scorers once again with 25. This time around, he posted a double-double in an effort to give his team the victory. Furcron snagged 16 boards in his 38 minutes on the court.
After going undefeated in the classic, the Beavers will look to face seven more non-conference opponents before entering Jayhawk competition. Their next five matchups will be against junior varsities and prep academies.
PCC men's basketball will compete again when they take on Southwestern College Junior Varsity on Nov. 5. The tipoff will be at 8 p.m.
