STEUBENVILLE, Oh. – The Penn State Behrend men's basketball team notched their biggest win margin of the season (37) with an 85-48 victory over Franciscan Saturday afternoon in Allegheny Mountain Collegiate College (AMCC) action.
The Lions (19-1, 13-1 AMCC) pushed their winning streak to 15 games and lived by the three ball to propel themselves past the Barons (1-19, 1-14 AMCC) for the second time this season. More than half of the shots Behrend made were drained from behind the arc.
The Lions shot 29-for-56 (51.8%) from the floor and 16-of-31 (51.6%) from three. Leading all the Lions was freshman Justin Gorny (South Park, PA/South Park) and senior Zane Hackett (Brookville, PA/Brookville). Each player had 15 points, a game-high and career-high for Gorny.
Gorny led the three-point shooting campaign, going 4-of-6 for all of his buckets. Coming off a perfect 100 percent shooting performance from the floor and the foul line on Wednesday for Hackett, he only missed one shot Saturday. He made six of his seven field goal attempts and was a perfect 3-for-3 from the charity stripe. Hackett also added a game-high six boards for the Lions.
Adding 10 points and four assists was freshman Andy Niland (Fairview, PA/Fairview). He also tallied a game-high three steals. Following right along with Niland was freshman Matt Colpoys (Erie, PA/Cathedral Prep). He finished with nine points and a game-high five dimes.
Malquan Pullium (Erie, PA/Strong Vincent) also joined the assist-fest with four of his own. He notched eight points, five rebounds and two steals as well.
Off the bench, Connor McLaughlin (Ashtabula, OH/Edgewood), Mike Fischer (Wexford, PA/North Allegheny), Kevin Scuilli (McKees Rocks, PA/Montour) and Malike Brinson (Erie, PA/Collegiate Academy) all added triples in the victory. McLaughlin made 1-of-2, Fischer and Brinson went 2-4 and 2-3 respectfully, while Scuilli was a perfect 2-for-2 from deep.
Behrend used a huge first half to give themselves a comfortable lead and all of the game's momentum. The Lions shot 53.3 percent from the three in the first half, making 8-of-15 which was more than half of the first half buckets made (15).
They outscored Franciscan 43-17 in the first half, holding the Barons to 30 percent shooting. Behrend opened the game with a 12-2 run in the first five minutes, setting the tone for the remainder of the match up.
After a made three by Franciscan, the Lions went on a 14-2 run to widen the point margin even further. The Barons made back-to-back threes to try and stop the Behrend scoring rampage, but the Lions would get right back to business. In a 26-13 game, Behrend jumped to an 11-0 run to push their lead to 23.
They finished the half with a 26-point advantage they would later push by 11 more in the second half. The Lions' largest lead of the game was tagged at 39, but fell to 37 by the final buzzer. The 37-point win marks the largest margin of victory thus far this season for Behrend.
The top-ranked scoring defense in all three divisions of college basketball continues to excel. The Lion defense allows only 57.7 points per game and after their win over Franciscan, have held opponents to under 50 points scored in three consecutive games.
Behrend is back in action Wednesday at Medaille with a 6 p.m. start.
