PITTSFORD, NY – Russ Conley led the way with 19 points and chipped in four rebounds to help the Penn State Behrend men's basketball program defeat Farmingdale St. 79-66, wrapping up the Woodcliff Invitational hosted by St. John Fisher in non-conference play, Thursday.
Chris Saltzman dropped 18 points and grabbed six boards while Chris Tamasy shot five-for-six from the field to put up a career high 13 points. Rounding up the Lions (8-1) top performers was Adam Palcic who finished the game with nine points and two steals.
The Rams (4-5) were led by Josh Smith's 20 points and three assists. Jermaine Abraham joined in with 16 points and six rebounds.
Behrend jumped on Farmingdale St. early gaining a 10-2 lead. The stretch was led by one of Pacic's three triples and was capped off by a Conley dunk at the 16:28 mark. The rams quickly took a timeout to compose themselves and would respond by knotting the game at 17-all midway through the first half (9:20). A last second layup by Farmingdale's Dyshaun Flournoy sent the Lions into the locker room nursing a one-point lead, 33-32.
The second half started with both teams trading buckets until Saltzman and Tamasy combined to score 11 of Behrend's 15 points over a five minute span and gave the Lions a 65-54 lead with under seven minutes to play.
Pat St. Andrews and Palcic would seal the deal for Behrend as the duo connected on two attempts from long range to put the game out of reach (78-60) as the Lions took care of business defeating Farmingdale St. 79-66.
Behrend will return to the Junker Center to open up the New Year against D'Youville, January 5 at 8 p.m.