DiRienzo Reaches 1,000 Career Points; Behrend Scores Convincing Win Over Altoona

ERIE, Pa. – Senior guard Tommy DiRienzo (Pittsburgh, PA/Bethel Park) reached the 1,000-point mark with 6:33 left in the Penn State Behrend men's basketball teams contest Saturday afternoon against Penn State Altoona. Behrend captured an 86-48 victory over Altoona in the Junker Center.

Score: Penn State Behrend 86, Penn State Altoona 48

Records: Penn State Behrend (8-5, 3-3 AMCC), Penn State Altoona (5-8, 4-2 AMCC)

Noteworthy:

* DiRienzo becomes the 24^th player in program history to reach this feat with the last player being Kenny Fukon on January 15, 2022

Key Moments:

* The first nine minutes of Saturday's game were back-and-forth between both teams, but eventually the Lions were able to break away with a 19-12 scoring run to take a 38-30 lead into halftime
* Matthew McDonough (Pittsburgh, PA/North Allegheny) led the way for Behrend in the first half, tallying 12 points
* Behrend continued its offensive push in the second half, extending its lead to 51-35 with 14:45 left to play
* The Lions eventually came away with their third conference victory by a score of 86-48, holding their largest lead of 41 points (86-45) with two minutes remaining
* McDonough matched his season-high in points with 28, shooting 9-17 from the field and 4-8 from three. He notched 16 of his 28 points in the second half
* The second-year guard last scored 28 points against Mount Aloysius on December 9^th
* DiRienzo finished his milestone day with 21 points and five rebounds, while Michael Sopko (New Castle, PA/Neshannock) added 10 points to go along with six rebounds
* Senior guard Matt Niland (Erie, PA/Fairview) chipped in a season-high six rebounds and four assists and off the bench Stefan Milinkovic (Fairport, NY/Fairport) recorded eight points with a perfect 4-4 from the field
* Altoona received a game-high from Justin Sheetz with 16 points off the bench, while Mason Bush scored 11 points and grabbed five rebounds
* As a team, Behrend shot 56.4 percent (31-55) from the field and were 16-21 from beyond the arc. The Lions also outscored Altoona in the paint (44-14), while finishing with more rebounds (37-29) and points off turnovers (25-13)

Up Next:

* The Lions head back on the road to take on Hilbert at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 10