BUFFALO TWP — Matt Aulicino felt like death Friday night.

He couldn't keep anything down. He was tired and ill.

But he wasn't about to let his Freeport basketball teammates down.

Feeling fresher Saturday, the Yellowjackets' 6-foot-6 sophomore forward scored 10 of his game-high 22 points in the fourth quarter to stave off hard-charging Kiski Area in a wild 82-79 win at the Freeport Christmas Tournament.

“I was just trying to power through adversity,” said Aulicino, who scored 23 points Friday in a close loss to Mercyhurst Prep despite vomiting in the locker room at halftime. “A lot of fluids. Helping my team out is a great feeling.”

Aulicino shook off a slow start to rise to the occasion in a high-scoring second half for both teams.

Aulicino scored 14 of his points after halftime and was 4-for-5 at the line.

“Matt had a great game tonight,” said Freeport coach Wayne Greiser. “Two great games in a row. Honestly, he's had three — he had a great game against Derry right before Christmas. He's had three consecutive 20-plus point games.

“We may have him be sick the rest of the season,” Greiser said, chuckling.

It was another sick start for Kiski.

After falling behind against Knoch 18-2 Friday night, the Cavaliers looked up at a 14-0 deficit to start the game against Freeport.

But Kiski kept chipping away in the fourth quarter and held a brief 79-78 lead after a dunk by 6-7 Jason Baker on an alley-oop with 40 seconds remaining.

Freeport, though, closed it out on four free throws by Garret Schaffhauser.

“We got up big on them early and that was nice, but I told our guys, 'Be ready. They're going to come at you. They're a quality opponent,'” Greiser said. “What I liked was our guys responded and finished the game.”

Freeport (2-5) also got a boon from Aiden Skradski, who hit six 3-pointers and scored 20.

The Yellowjackets had four players in double digits. Schaffhauser had 15 and Christian Waronsky added 11.

Kiski got 21 points off the bench from James Pearson and scored 58 points in the second half.

“We could have just lost it and continued to lose those close games,” Greiser said. “We didn't do that.”

That bodes well for Freeport heading into the meat of its schedule.

The only numbers that really matters to the Yellowjackets is 0-1 — their section record — with nine more to go.

Ultimately, that is Freeport's season.

“Those are the games that matter to us,” Aulicino said. “We're 0-1. We have Highlands next. That's what we're focused on.”

Knoch 71, Mercyhurst Prep 53

Matt Bengel was mauling the Knights.

The Mercyhurst Prep star scored 24 points in the first half. Hand in his face? Didn't matter. He drained almost everything he threw up.

But Knoch stayed the course, made a slight adjustment at the half, shut down Bengel and held the Lakers to just 15 points in the second half to the win.

Knoch (6-1) used a 23-2 run to overcome a nine-point deficit in the final minute of the first half and put Mercyhurst Prep in its rearview mirror.

“We had a good halftime talk with those guys,” said Knoch coach Ron McNabb. “We talked about toughness. Not physical toughness, but mental toughness. We got punched in the mouth.”

The defense in the first half wasn't necessarily poor. Scott Fraser was charged with the challenging task of guarding Bengel and was in the lanky star's face, but it mattered little.

It mattered much more in the final two quarters.

“Scotty was frustrated, but we just said stay the course,” McNabb said.

McNabb said he was actually happy his team faced the climb it did.

“We hadn't been in that situation before,” McNabb said. “I wanted to see what we were made of.”

Fraser, who scored 17 points, was named the Freeport Tournament MVP.

Ryan Lang led the Knights with 24 points, including five 3-pointers.

The win was also the 100th at Knoch for McNabb.

He is the fastest to reach that milestone in Knoch boys basketball history.

KNOCH 71

Scott Fraser 8-12 1-1 17, Jared Schrecengost 3-9 1-2 8, Jake Scheidt 3-7 2-3 9, Ryan Lang 9-17 1-2 24, Brady McKee 3-4 0-0 6, Adam Bajuszik 2-3 0-0 6, Zack McMillen 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 28-52 5-8 71.

MERCYHURST PREP 53

Daunte Wilcott 6-15 0-0 12, Matt Bengel 14-23 0-0 32, Nate Helsley 1-5 0-0 2, David Rathburn 1-2 0-0 3, Trey Battle 1-7 2-4 4, Jeff Giannelli 0-0 0-0 0, Tristian Truitt 0-0 0-0 0, Pete Zimmerman 0-0 0-0 0, Matt Luce 0-0 0-0 0, Michael Coleman 0-0 0-0 0, Damari Ward 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 23-52 2-4 53.

Knoch 14 18 22 17 — 71

Mercyhurst Prep16 22 5 10 — 53

3-point goals: Knoch 10 (Fraser, Schrecengost, Scheidt, Lang 5, Bajuszik 2); Mercyhurst Prep 5 (Bengel 4, Rathburn)

Friday: Knoch at Yough

KISKI AREA 79

Jason Baker 4-7 0-0 8, Kenny Blake 3-6 2-2 8, Lebryn Smith 0-1 0-0 0, Kyrell Hutcherson 7-17 3-4 17, Max Heinle 4-8 4-4 13, James Pearson 6-8 9-13 21, Dylan Hutcherson 4-11 1-2 12, Billy Perroz 0-0 0-0 0, Ian Chepkevich 0-1 0-0 0, Mason Clayton 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 28-59 19-25 79.

FREEPORT 82

Garret Schaffhauser 3-7 9-17 15, Christian Waronsky 3-4 3-5 11, Aiden Skradski 7-16 0-0 20, Vinnie Clark 2-7 2-2 8, Matt Aulicino 9-19 4-5 22, Colin Gaspersic 1-2 0-0 2, Andrew Speer 1-1 0-0 2, Nolan Plocki 1-3 0-0 2, Daniel Lynch 0-1 0-0 0, Ben Lane 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 27-60 18-29 82.

Kiski Area 6 15 26 32 — 79

Freeport21 13 26 22 — 82

3-point goals: Kiski Area 4 (Heinle, D. Hutcherson 3); Freeport (Waronsky 2,Skradski 6, Clark 2)

Friday: Highlands at Freeport