ERIE, Pa. – The Penn State Behrend men's basketball team is set to travel to Pittsburgh, PA for the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) playoffs, hosted by La Roche this Saturday and Sunday.
The Lions (19-6, 14-4 AMCC) have secured the No. 2 seed and will play No. 3 Medaille (17-9, 13-5 AMCC) Saturday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. No. 1 La Roche will host No. 5 Hilbert (18-8, 13-5 AMCC) prior to Behrend matchup. The winner of the two semifinal games will play for the championship on Sunday.
The Mavericks beat No. 6 Mount Aloysius (6-20, 6-12 AMCC) on Wednesday by a score of 78-58 to advance and play the Lions, while the Hawks upset No. 4 Penn State Altoona (17-9, 13-5 AMCC) on the road 77-72 to move to the semifinal round and square off against the host Redhawks.
Behrend is led by the junior forward Dan Wanker (Pittsburgh, PA/South Park), who paces the Lions in scoring (13.0 ppg) and rebounding (6.8 rpg). Wanker has posted 19 double-digit scoring performances while shooting a 50.8 clip from the field.
Andy Niland (Fairview, PA/Fairview) leads Behrend with 6.3 assists per game and put up an average of 10.9 points per game. Niland ranks fourth in the conference with a 39.7 three-point percentage, while Malike Brinson (Erie, PA/Central Tech) sits at fifth averaging 39.5 percent from long range.
As a team, the Lions are the first-ranked scoring defense in Division III, allowing only 59.0 points per game.
The Lions are looking to secure their sixth Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference title, last winning the crown in 2013-14.