BUFFALO, N.Y. – The Penn State Altoona men's basketball team won its fifth in a row on Saturday on the shoulders of a strong defensive effort, as the Lions grabbed a 95-69 victory over Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference opponent Medaille College in the Sullivan Center.

The victory is Penn State Altoona's (7-1, 3-0 AMCC) first win at Medaille since February 19, 2005, when the Lions defeated the Mavericks 68-55 in Buffalo. Saturday's win helps Penn State Altoona continue its program-best start to a season with seven wins in the team's first eight games.

"This was one of my most satisfying wins in my time here," said Penn State Altoona head coach David McGreal. "Medaille has owned us at their place, and usually it wasn't close. To go there and turn the table and take care of business the way we did made me so proud of this group."

Penn State Altoona held Medaille (3-4, 0-1 AMCC) to a 32.1 percent field goal percentage as a team, while the Lions connected on 54.2 percent of their shots from the floor.

Robbie Hicks (Rockledge, FL/Rockledge) put up a game-high 16 points for Penn State Altoona on a 6-for-7 performance from the field, including hitting both of his three-point attempts. Saivon Word (Upper Marlboro, MD/Frederick Douglass) contributed 14 points and four assists off the bench.

Varun Ajjarapu (Tampa, FL/Berkeley Prep) added 10 points and a team-high six assists, and Andruw Harman (Chesapeake, VA/Great Bridge) secured a game-high eight rebounds and three blocks while scoring eight points. Y'shua Bragg (Pittsburgh, PA/Carrick) also finished with eight points.

15 different Penn State Altoona players saw action in the game.

"So happy to see everyone contribute to this win, because everyone has been working so hard," said McGreal. "No matter who we played today, everyone went in there and contributed, and as a coach, you can't be any happier."

Medaille got 14 points and five rebounds from Rodney Graves, while Kendall McGill recorded 13 points and six boards.

Penn State Altoona worked its way to a 14-point halftime lead, helped by the Lions' defense limiting the Mavericks to a 10-for-42 showing from the field.

"We came out as the aggressor for the first time ever at this gym, and we never looked back," McGreal stated.

Alex McClellan's (York, PA/West York) three-pointer at 15:24 gave the Lions a 12-2 lead, and a Mason Bush (Pittsburgh, PA/Seneca Valley) trey and Jarrett Gardner (Live Oak, FL/Suwannee) layup extended Penn State Altoona's lead to 17-4 two minutes later. Hicks' layup at 9:02 put his team ahead by 14 points, 26-12.

A pair of foul shots at 7:07 by Graves brought Medaille's deficit back into the single digits, 29-20, but Penn State Altoona outscored the Mavericks 11-6 for the rest of the half to lead 40-26 at the intermission. Harman's layup at 2:11 got the Lions' advantage back into double digits for good, and three buckets from Word within the final 1:32 of the period put the visitors up by 14 at the break.

Penn State Altoona tacked 55 more points on to their total during the second half, when the Lions grew their lead by 12. Penn State Altoona hit 17 of their 30 attempts from the floor during the period.

Gardner's jumper at 14:16 pushed the Lions' lead to over 20 points for the first time in the game, making it 52-31. Later, a layup from Ajjarapu, a three-pointer and two free throws from Hicks, and a pair of foul shots by Harman set Penn State Altoona's lead at 29 points, 73-44.

The Lions maintained a comfortable advantage throughout the rest of the game, increasing their lead to as many as 30 points, when Chris Jarosz (Toronto, ON/Andrews Osborne Academy) hit from three-point range to make it 95-65 with 52 seconds left.

Next up, the Penn State Altoona men's basketball team will take a short trip into Cambria County to face nearby AMCC opponent Mount Aloysius College on Wednesday, December 8 at 7:30 p.m. That contest will be the Lions' final conference game of the semester.

"Now, it's on to the local rivalry up the mountains on Wednesday," said McGreal. "We need to refocus and finish this conference stretch of ours with serious momentum."