SCRANTON, Pa. – The Penn State Altoona men's basketball team improved to 3-1 with an 81-74 victory over Penn State Abington on Friday night, during the first day of this weekend's Electric City Classic at Marywood University's Insalaco Arena.

With the victory, Penn State Altoona (3-1) will face Cairn University in the second and final day of the classic on Saturday, November 20. Tip-off for that game will be 4:00 p.m.

"Great team win today," said Penn State Altoona head coach David McGreal. "Very excited to be able to rebound after a tough loss on Tuesday and pull out a win against a very tough and talented Abington team."

Saivon Word (Upper Marlboro, MD/Frederick Douglass) led Penn State Altoona with 17 points, nine assists, and three steals while also grabbing six rebounds. He finished the night with a 7-for-11 performance from the field.

Mason Bush (Pittsburgh, PA/Seneca Valley) scored 14 points off the bench for the Lions, hitting 4-of-6 shots from the field, including a pair of three-pointers. Varun Ajjarapu (Tampa, FL/Berkeley Prep) and Casey Parkins (Laurel, MD/Atholton) each added nine points for the Lions, while PJ Charles (Altoona, PA/Altoona) and Alex McClellan (York, PA/West York) scored eight points apiece.

Andruw Harman (Chesapeake, VA/Great Bridge) added seven points, seven rebounds, and two blocks, while Y'shua Bragg (Pittsburgh, PA/Carrick) had team-highs with eight rebounds and three blocks to go along with six points.

"After a really slow start, our bench came in and gave us a boost," said McGreal. "Mason and Casey had their best games of the year and made big buckets for us when we needed them."

Penn State Abington (3-3) got a game-high 20 points from Alex Podolski, while Brian Randolph contributed 15 points and Alex Salata scored 11.

Abington worked its way out to a double digit lead in the first half, only to see Penn State Altoona come back to claim a 40-39 halftime advantage.

Trailing 21-11, Penn State Altoona embarked on a 12-0 run that put them in front. Bragg's layup and foul shot sparked the run, followed by free throws and a three-pointer by Bush. McClellan's fastbreak score and Word's layup put the Lions into the lead by the 8:43 mark. After Abington reclaimed a small advantage, Word's jumper at 1:50 tied the score 37-37, and Parkins hit a three-pointer with 1:06 left in the half to put his team up by three. Salata's layup for Abington with 25 seconds remaining in the half set the intermission score.

Abington again built a double digit advantage in the second half, surging ahead 62-52 halfway through the period. But Penn State Altoona put together another big run to leap ahead, outscoring Abington 15-2 over the next several minutes to take a 67-64 lead by the 5:59 mark following back-to-back scores by Word and Harman. Two more buckets from Word with under two minutes to play helped grow Penn State Altoona's lead to nine, and the Lions maintained their advantage to ice the win.

"Once Abington took the lead in the second half, we called a timeout and basically called each other out about not letting this one get away," said McGreal. "Saivon really got the spark going on offense down the stretch, which he did all game. We also switched defenses on them, and it ended up working really well, and I believe it helped us get the win."

Now, Penn State Altoona will face Cairn tomorrow in the second day of Marywood's Electric City Classic. Cairn defeated host Marywood on Friday in overtime.

"No time to rest, literally, as we play a physically strong and tough team in Cairn tomorrow," said McGreal.