AURORA, N.Y. – Sophomore Charlie Breindel (Saint Mary's, PA/Elk County Catholic) and freshman Jake Ziegler (McMurray, PA/Peters Township) finished with career days at Wells Saturday afternoon to help lead the Penn State Behrend men's basketball team to a 75-68 victory.
Score: Penn State Behrend 75, Wells 68
Records: Penn State Behrend (19-6, 14-4 AMCC), Wells (4-21, 3-15 AMCC)
Key Moments:
* The Lions controlled a three-point lead heading into halftime (37-34)
* The second half was a back-and-forth affair as neither team could grab a double-digit advantage with 16 ties and 20 lead changes in the contest
* Wells took a 65-63 lead with 5:53 remaining, but a made three-pointer from Ziegler and some key free throw makes and defensive stops down the stretch led the Lions to earn their 14th conference win to end the regular season
* Breindel came into Saturday's contest logging a career-high five minutes in his young career; however, he amassed 27 minutes against the Express and certainly made the most of the opportunity
* The second-year guard shot 5-9 from the field and 2-3 from beyond the arc for a career-best 17 points. He also went 5-6 from the charity stripe
* The same holds true for Ziegler as he capitalized on 33 minutes of playing time Saturday with a career-high 15 points and seven rebounds
* Stefan Milinkovic (Fairport, NY/Fairport) scored a season-high 14 points in 14 minutes to go along with four rebounds, while Owen Flisnik (Pittsford, NY/Pittsford Sutherland) played a season-best 21 minutes and grabbed six rebounds
* Guards Shawn Mason (Webster, NY/Webster Thomas) and Isaac DeGregorio (Allison Park, PA/North Catholic) each registered eight points off the bench. DeGregorio tied his career-high with five assists
* The Express were led by Terrance Clayton-Murphy's game-high 21 points, while Billy McCrae tallied 15 points and six rebounds. Ransel Rodriguez dished out a game-high nine assists.
* As a team, Behrend shot 50 percent (11-22) from three, holding Wells to only 17.4 percent (4-23) from deep
Up Next:
* The Lions will be the second seed in the AMCC Tournament and will receive a first-round bye, traveling to La Roche on Friday, Feb. 23 for a semifinals matchup against No. 3 TBD or No. 6 TBD which will be determined following a pair of games this afternoon. The third seed will either be Alfred State or Pitt-Greensburg, while Penn State Altoona (8-9) currently sits in sixth in the conference standings with Hilbert (7-10) and Mount Aloysius (7-10) on the outside of the playoff picture looking in.
