CRESSON, Pa. – The Penn Behrend men's basketball team won their sixth consecutive Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) match-up, defeating Mount Aloysius 81-62 on Saturday afternoon.
Four players scored in double figures to lead the Lions (12-1, 7-1 AMCC) to victory. Zane Hackett (Brookville, PA/Brookville) led all scorers for the third straight game, dropping 20 on 8-of-12 shooting. He also added 12 rebounds to post his 10th double-double of the season.
Mike Fischer (Wexford, PA/North Allegheny) set a career-high in points for the second straight game after previously breaking his record on Wednesday against Medaille. He scored 18, including 12 from beyond the arc. After four assists against the Mounties (5-10, 2-6 AMCC), Fischer currently leads the AMCC in assist/turnover ratio with a 23.0 mark.
To put that stat into perspective, the player ranked second is teammate Connor McLaughlin (Ashtabula, OH/Edgewood) at 3.2. McLaughlin gave 19 minutes, scoring five points, two boards and adding three assists after returning from injury.
Freshmen Andy Niland (Fairview, PA/Fairview) and Matt Colpoys (Erie, PA/Cathedral Prep) also gave double digits for Behrend, dropping 13 and 10 respectively. Niland went 3-for-6 from three to add to his conference-leading 46.1 three-point shooting percentage.
The Lions went off in the first half to open up a 16-point lead at the halftime break. Behrend never trailed in the game, opening with an 11-2 run to start. Mount Aloysius came back within two to make an 18-16 game with 11:28 left in the first.
Both teams battled to try and pull away for the next five minutes, but neither could. At 28-23, triples by Niland and Fischer jumpstarted a 15-4 run to close out the half with a 16-point advantage.
The second half was much more even. The Lions won the half by only three. An 8-1 run by the Mounties at the beginning of the second helped swing momentum their way to start a comeback.
Behrend would not let that happen however. Small runs by both teams kept the game even, but the Lion offense, as usual, was too difficult to stop and the defense, garnered by their national ranking (7th), would not give into a comeback attempt.
Behrend looks to continue their winning streak at home on Monday. They take on Hilbert at 6 p.m.
