Penn State Behrend's Men's Basketball Holds Off Medaille 54-46

The Penn State Behrend men's basketball team squared off in a big AMCC contest against Medaille College on Wednesday, January 14 at the Junker Center.  The blue and white turned in another tremendous defensive effort to get the win 54-46 in front of 223 fans.

The Medaille Mavericks came out of the gates firing away, building a quick 7-0 lead in the opening minutes of play.  The Behrend Lions (8-5, 4-2) would settle down and take their first lead of the game with 12:30 to play off a three-point bucket from Adam Kaiser to make it 11-10.  The blue and white would dominate the rest of the first half, outscoring the Mavericks 23-5 to go to the break with a 34-15 advantage.

Behrend would continue to pour it on to open the second half, using an 11-2 run to stretch its lead to 46-17 with just under 14 minutes to play.  Just when it looked like the game was firmly in hand for the blue and white, the Mavericks would begin a furious comeback.  Medaille would score 23 straight points to pull within striking distance at 46-40 with four minutes remaining in the game.  With the game in doubt, Behrend got a tough bucket underneath from Adam Potter (Pittsburgh/Mt. Lebanon) followed by a back-breaking three-point hit from Drew Seker (Ellicott City, MD/Centennial) to close out the big AMCC win.

Potter finished with a game-high 15 points and eight rebounds.  Tom Newman (Girard/Northwestern) had a solid all-around game with eight points, seven rebounds, three assists, and two steals.  Pat St. Andrews (State College/State College) finished with nine, while Adam Kaiser (Erie/Cathedral Prep) chipped in with eight points.  Behrend held Medaille to 30% shooting for the game, giving up only 14 field goals in 40 minutes of action.

The Mavericks (8-5, 3-3) got great games from two players who came off the bench to lead Medaille in scoring as Ron Malicki scored 13 points and Ben Kopp had eleven.

The blue and white welcome Franciscan to the Junker Center on Saturday, January 17 for a 3:00 p.m. AMCC game before heading to Pitt-Bradford on Monday, January 19 for an 8:00 p.m. conference contest.