The Penn State Behrend men's basketball team advanced to the semifinals of the AMCC tournament with a 67-48 win over the #6 seeded Penn State Altoona Lions in an AMCC first round game on Tuesday, February 23 at the Junker Center.
With the win #3 Behrend will now face #2 Pitt-Bradford at 8:00 p.m. on Friday, February 26 at Medaille. Pitt-Bradford defeated #7 Pitt-Greensburg tonight to advance to the semifinal round. The #1 Medaille Mavericks will battle the winner of the #4 Frostburg State/#5 Mt. Aloysius game in the other semifinal at 6:00 p.m. This win also marked Head Coach Dave Niland's 300th win with the Behrend Lions. Niland has led the squad to a stellar 300-135 record in 16 seasons at Behrend, and is the Behrend men's basketball all-time leader in coaching victories.
The familiarity of playing twice in a span of four days seemed to show up early as both teams struggled to score to start out the game. After a combined 11 missed field goals, six by Behrend and five by Altoona, the Behrend Lions got on the board first with a Russ Conley (Transfer/Reynolds) layup at the 15:08 mark. Starting with Conley's layup the home squad made 11-of-22 shots the rest of the half. Altoona tied the game with a layup by John Brennan and starting with that put-back, made 9-of-20 to end the period. Behrend rode the hot hand of Justin Kovac (Venetia/Peters Township) who scored ten first-half points on 4-of-4 shooting from the floor, including two from long range. Behrend forced 11 first-half turnovers by Altoona and took a 29-23 lead to the break.
Out of the locker room Behrend scored the first nine points, with five of them coming by way of Kovac for a 38-23 advantage. The Behrend Lions got great production inside from Adam Potter (Pittsburgh/Mt. Lebanon) and Chris Saltzman (Pittsburgh/Central Catholic) as Potter scored 11 in the final twenty minutes with Saltzman adding eight. The blue and white would lead by at least 11 points the rest of the way, going on to earn the 19-point victory. Kovac finished with 19 points, five rebounds, four assists, and three steals. Saltzman worked for a double-double with 12 points and ten boards. Potter tallied 18 points and five rebounds, helping Behrend shoot 56% from the floor in the second half. Freshman Adam Palcic (Greensburg/Greensburg Central Catholic) came off the bench to collect six rebounds, including four on the offensive end.
With the win, Behrend improves to 18-7 on the season. The Penn State Altoona Lions finish their season with a record of 12-14.
