ERIE, Pa. – The Penn State Behrend men's basketball team is set to travel to Hamburg, NY for the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) playoffs, hosted by Hilbert this Saturday and Sunday.
The Lions (20-4, 14-4 AMCC) have secured the No. 2 seed and will play No. 3 Pitt-Greensburg (16-9, 13-5 AMCC) Saturday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. No. 1 Hilbert will host No. 5 Pitt-Bradford (11-14, 10-8 AMCC) prior to Behrend's matchup. The winner of the two semifinal games will play for the championship on Sunday.
The Bobcats beat No. 6 Medaille (11-14, 9-9 AMCC) on Wednesday by a score of 80-66 to advance and play the Lions, while the Panthers defeated No. 4 La Roche (12-13, 12-6 AMCC) on the road 67-61 to move to the semifinal round and square off against the host Hawks.
Behrend is led by the lone senior Zane Hackett (Brookville, PA/Brookville), who paces the Lions in scoring (17.6 ppg) and rebounding (10.6 rpg). He leads the conference and is eighth in Division III, shooting 63.8 percent from the floor. Hackett also ranks sixth in the country with 16 double-doubles. Earlier this season, he cracked the 1,000 career point club and currently sits 14th on the Behrend all-time scoring list.
Andy Niland (Fairview, PA/Fairview) runs the Behrend offense, averaging 13.8 points and 4.7 assists per game. He leads the AMCC in three-point percentage at a 43.1 percent clip. Niland is also second in the conference and eighth in the nation in free throw percentage (90.8%).
As a team, the Lions are the second-ranked scoring defense in Division II, allowing only 59.7 points per game. They rank first in the country, committing just 13.5 personal fouls per game. Behrend adds a lock in the seventh national spot in field goal percentage defense, holding opponents to 38.5 percent from the floor.
The Lions look to bounce off their two-game skid and capture their sixth overall, and third AMCC title in the last four years
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