CLINTON, NY – The Hamilton men's basketball team erased an 11-point lead and scored six of their final eight points from the free-throw line to defeat Penn State Behrend in the first round of the 2019 NCAA Division III Tournament on Friday night.
Score: Hamilton 72, Penn State Behrend 70
Records: Penn State Behrend (23-5), Hamilton (24-4)
Key Moments:
* Justin Gorny (South Park, PA/South Park) and Mike Fischer (Wexford, PA/North Allegheny) each scored 17 points for the Lions
* Gorny also led in rebounds for the double-double with 11 boards
* Kena Gilmore led all scorers with 26 points for Hamilton
* Andy Niland (Fairview, PA/Fairview) added 10 points and seven assists
* The Lions held a 9-2 advantage behind the arc but only took four free throws to the Continentals 23 chances at the line
First Half
* Behrend held the Continentals scoreless for the first four minutes to set the tempo
* The Lions managed to jump out to an 8-0 lead
* Hamilton got its first basket at 15:28 thanks to Mike Grassi, but the Continentals went 1-for-9 in the first seven minutes
* A combined 21 points were scored in the first 11 minutes
* Back-to-back triples from Gorny and Fischer, before a Kenny Fukon (Cranberry Township, PA/Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic) layup got the Lions an eight-point lead at halftime (35-27)
* Hamilton's 27 first-half points is the lowest output in the first 20 minutes this season
* Behrend held the Continentals 1-for-11 from three-point range in the first half
Second Half
* The Lions their first double-digit lead at 42-31 early in the second half off a layup from Malike Brinson (Erie, PA/Collegiate Academy)
* Hamilton cut it to one at 46-45 with a layup from Gilmore at 12:52 to force a Behrend timeout
* Gilmore had 20 of Hamilton's 45 points after that layup
* Behrend responds with a triple by Nolan Nuara (Erie, PA/Mercyhurst) for the big ensuing bucket and the Lions were able to get the lead back to six with 10:33 remaining
* Wanker's triple put it at 67-61 with three minutes remaining, but Hamilton got the traditional three-point play to make it 67-64
* The Continentals made four straight free throws on back-to-back fouls with two minutes to play to get within one at 69-68
* Gilmore drives it in after a Behrend miss to give Hamilton its first lead at 70-69 with 1:30 on the clock and then forced a shot-clock violation to get the ball back with 1:02 left
* The Continentals stop Fischer from driving in the lane forcing the Lions to foul to get sent to the line once again
* Another pair of free throws forces a three-point play by Behrend
* With an intentional foul by Hamilton with 10.2 seconds, Niland hit the second of two free throws and Behrend got the ball down by two
* The Lions could not get the final two shots to drop from Fischer and Dan Wanker (Pittsburgh, PA/South Park) with time expiring