The Penn State Behrend men's basketball team competed in the first round of the ECAC South Region Tournament on Wednesday, March 3 at the Junker Center. The Behrend Lions defeated visiting Misericordia University 79-73 in a thrilling overtime contest.
The Misericordia Cougars scored the first four points of the game, but a 21-2 run by the Behrend Lions put the home squad up 21-6 with 9:07 to play in the first half. The visitors responded with a 14-6 run to pull within seven points, trailing 27-20 with 3:03 left in the first half. Behrend saw eight players score in the opening period, with Chris Saltzman (Pittsburgh/Central Catholic) the high point man with seven, while Adam Potter (Pittsburgh/Mt. Lebanon) chipped in six. Behrend made five threes (5-of-13) compared to Misericordia's one (1-for-9) in the first twenty minutes and headed to the locker room up 32-23 at the break.
Behrend maintained a solid lead for the first ten minutes of the second half, and led by ten (51-41) with 10:31 to play. The Cougars cut it to eight with just under ten to play, and got it to five (51-46) with a layup and a free throw by Dom Del Prete. Behrend pushed the lead back to eight on a few occasions, including as late as the 2:55 mark after a layup by Potter made it 63-55. A Saltzman layup with 57 seconds to play gave Behrend a 67-60 lead and seemed to point toward a Behrend victory, but the Cougars had other plans. After a Misercordia free throw Behrend would miss the front end of a one-and-one leading to a made three-point bucket by Del Prete with 11 seconds to play, pulling the Cougars within three at 67-64. Another free throw miss with eight seconds to play by the blue and white gave Misericordia one last chance, and Del Prete nailed a fading three-point shot at the buzzer to stun the crowd and force overtime at 67-67.
In overtime Behrend hit six free throws and led 73-71 with 1:43 to play before getting back-to-back buckets by Nick Dvorsky (Pittsburgh/North Allegheny) for a 77-73 lead with 31 seconds left. A missed three pointer by the visitors and a layup by Adam Palcic (Greensburg/Greensburg Central Catholic) clinched the win and sent Behrend to the ECAC Semifinals.
With the win, the blue and white improve thier record to 19-8 while Misericordia ends their season at 16-12. The Behrend Lions will next travel to the host and number one seed Catholic College for the second round of the ECAC South Tournament. Behrend is set to play #2 seed Bethany on Saturday, March 6.
