Then there were two.

After winning their semifinal games yesterday, Abington and McKeesport will face each other at 1 p.m. today in the Bryce Jordan Center to play for the men's basketball championship of the Commonwealth Campus Athletic Conference (CCAC). The CCAC is made up of teams from 14 of Penn State's commonwealth campuses and is divided into an east and west division.

Abington emerged as the conference's east division champion when it defeated Schuylkill 81-62 in the first of yesterday's two semifinal games. Led by guard Marvin Dutton's 20 points, Abington jumped out to an early lead and overcame an injury to starting guard Isaiah Thomas, who left with an ankle injury after diving for a loose ball.

"We have been able to make adjustments due to injuries already this season. This team has faced adversity," Abington coach Maurice Williams said.

After ending the first half with a 49-27 lead, Abington broke its pre-second half huddle yelling "dominate," and that is exactly what it did.

Schuylkill made a small comeback, cutting the lead to 11 points with 2:26 left but was unable to reduce the deficit to single digits. Forward Cecil Usher led Schuylkill with 19 points.

"I knew they would make a run, but we maintained composure and played well," Williams said.

In the day's second semifinal game, New Kensington squared off against McKeesport in a rematch of last year's CCAC western division title game. New Kensington came out on top in that matchup, but was unable to hold off McKeesport yesterday, falling 73-55.

McKeesport came out running and used its aggressive, trapping defense to jump out to an early 13-2 lead.

New Kensington came fighting back and reduced the deficit to one point with three minutes left and ended the half trailing, 40-34.

"We usually come out fired up, but we had too many turnovers in the first half," McKeesport coach Tim Keefer said.

McKeesport opened the second half on a 20-9 run that included nine of forward Darnell Turner's 20 points. McKeesport held a lead of at least 13 points for the remainder of the game.

Forward Brian Nichols scored 14 for New Kensington in the losing effort.

"It's real simple, they made shots and we didn't; when they went on a run we didn't respond," New Kensington coach Gary McAfoose said.

With the win, McKeesport earned a berth in the CCAC title game against Abington. Both coaches said that the simpler points of basketball are essential to winning the championship game.

"We need to play together, play unselfish and do the fundamentals; rebound, play defense and keep our composure," Williams said.

"Abington is a similar team to us, they're very athletic like we are," Keefer said. "We will need to rebound and play defense," he said.

Today's championship game is a rematch of the Nov. 11 game between the two teams that Abington won, 63-61.

"We played a tight game against them earlier," McKeesport guard Mike Moser said. "The championship is going to come down to whoever plays the best."