In a battle of two of the best teams in the AMCC, the Penn State Behrend men's basketball team dropped a heartbreaker to the Medaille Mavericks by a score of 76-74 on Wednesday, February 3 in front of a vocal crowd of 657 fans in the Junker Center. After several late ties, Medaille hit two free throws with three seconds remaining to edge the Behrend Lions.
The first half began fast as Behrend made four of its first five shots including early threes by Adam Potter (Pittsburgh/Mt. Lebanon) and Nick Dvorsky (Pittsburgh/North Allegheny) quickly building a 10-4 advantage. Medaille responded with a couple inside buckets and tied the game at 10-10 with 14:17 to go before the half. The teams traded the lead back and forth with neither squad earning more than a three-point lead until a basket by Russ Conley (Transfer/Reynolds) gave the blue and white a 35-31 lead with 4:17 before the break. The game was again tied at 38-38 before Behrend closed the half with consecutive buckets by Chris Saltzman (Pittsburgh/Central Catholic) to finish the first twenty minutes of play ahead 42-38.
Behrend got a quick layup by Potter to go ahead 44-38 early in the half. Medaille closed the gap to one before Behrend put up six straight to lead 57-50 with 12:58 to play. The Mavericks made a run and hit a three to take their first lead of the second half with 6:56 to play at 63-61. Medaille led by five with 4:35 to play before Behrend hit two free throws and ignited the crowd with a dunk by Saltzman to cut Medaille's lead to 66-68 with 3:42 remaining. Justin Kovac (Venetia/Peters Township) tied the game with a driving layup at the 1:44 mark, and after Medaille hit two free throws, the Behrend junior again got to the hoop to tie it at 70 with under a minute to play. Medaille's Mike Berkun then banged home a three with 26 seconds left to go up 73-70. Saltzman scored inside with 12 seconds to play, and after Berkun hit one of two free throws, Kovac drew a foul and calmly hit both free throws to knot it at 74-74 with three seconds. Then disaster struck for the blue and white as Medaille drew a foul on the inbounds play, and Berkun hit both shots to lead 76-74. A half court attempt at the buzzer drew iron but bounced away as the Mavericks came away with a big conference road win.
Saltzman scored 18, Conley added 17, Kovac dropped in 16, and Potter reached double figures with 10 points for the blue and white. Berkun and Ricky Reed led the Mavericks with 15 points apiece.
Behrend drops to 10-4 in the conference and 13-5 overall. The Mavericks improved to 20-1 overall and 15-1 in the AMCC. Next up for the Behrend Lions will be two conference road tests starting on Saturday, February 6 at Pitt-Greensburg.
