Medaille Snaps Lions Eight-Game Winning Streak With Strong Second Half

ERIE, Pa - The Penn State Behrend men's basketball team dropped their first Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) game Wednesday night against Medaille, 74-68.

Johnathan Belton shot 5-for-9 and went a perfect 14-for-14 from the charity stripe for the Mavericks (7-5, 4-1 AMCC). He led all scorers with 25 points, 19 of which came in the second half.

The Lions (9-3, 4-1 AMCC) had four guys score in double figures but struggled to get things going in the second half. Connor McLaughlin (Ashtabula, OH/Edgewood) led Behrend in scoring with 15 points and pulled down nine rebounds.

Dan Wanker (Pittsburgh, PA/South Park) and Malquan Pullium (Erie, PA/Strong Vincent) each added 11 points to the effort. Pullium added nine rebounds as well while Justin Gorny (South Park, PA/South Park) added 6 boards and 10 points.

Medaille and the Lions headed into the half all tied up, 28-all. The first half was filled with back-to-back action that included 7 ties and eight lead changes. The Mavericks shot 40.7 percent from the field while Behrend shot just 32.4 percent.

Medaille started the final 20 minutes on a 14-5 run which quickly put them up by nine with a little under 16 minutes to play in the game. The Lions would come within three at the 11:26 mark on a Wanker layup, but never got any closer.

The Mavericks answered with another big run, outscoring Behrend 11-1 over the next four minutes and capturing their largest lead of the game, making the score 56-43.

With 44 seconds left in the game, Behrend faced an 11-point deficit but managed to pull within four after a Wanker three and a Pullium and one.

The Lions finished the game shooting 42.3 percent from the field, but shot just 71.4 percent from the free-throw line in the second half.

Behrend will look to get back on the winning track this Saturday when they travel to Pitt-Bradford for a 3 p.m. game.