NEWARK, N.J. – The Penn State Altoona men's basketball team's postseason run came to an end on Saturday afternoon, when the fourth seed Lions suffered an 86-81 loss to nine seed William Paterson University in the semifinal round of this weekend's Eastern College Athletic Conference Division III Championship Tournament at Rutgers-Newark's Golden Dome.

William Paterson (15-12) continues its impressive ECAC tournament run and will play for the championship tomorrow, Sunday, March 6, while Penn State Altoona's (19-7) season comes to an end.

"The thing about sports is, no matter how good your season is, only two teams out of 400-plus will win their last game in March," said Penn State Altoona head coach David McGreal. "The Division III national champion and the ECAC Division III champ. For us to be one of only 34 D3 teams even playing today tells you how good this season was."

Penn State Altoona held a 45-44 lead at halftime of Saturday's game, but William Paterson was able to maneuver into the lead during the second half to edge out the Lions by five points.

The Pioneers' Yvens Monfluery led all players with 27 points and 11 rebounds. Michael Gilmore added 18 points for William Paterson, and Domenic Mignone had 13 points and 10 boards.

"Hats off to William Paterson. They played hard and made a couple more plays down the stretch. Their best player, Monfleury, missed the first half of the season and had been the difference in their team down the stretch, and he was the difference today," said McGreal. "Our free throw shooting also really cost us. Also, when they switched to zone, we weren't able to knock down shots with any consistency."

Saivon Word (Upper Marlboro, MD/Frederick Douglass) scored a team-high 17 points for Penn State Altoona. Mason Bush (Pittsburgh, PA/Seneca Valley) added 14 points and six rebounds, and PJ Charles (Altoona, PA/Altoona) produced 12 points and a team-high seven rebounds.

William Paterson roared out to a 12-2 lead by the 15:34 mark of the first half, then increased it to 21-7 by 12:45.

Penn State Altoona worked its way back, however. Casey Parkins (Laurel, MD/Atholton) hit a three-pointer at 11:44 to narrow the Pioneers' lead to nine, 21-12, and KeJahn Rainey (Woodbridge, VA/Potomac) made a jump shot 40 seconds later to make it 21-14. Back-to-back buckets from Charles and Word trimmed the Lions' deficit to one, 24-23, at 6:53.

Just over three minutes later, Rainey's three-point play put Penn State Altoona ahead by one, and a Jalen Ruston (Upper Marlboro, MD/Wise) layup at 3:07 kept the Lions' advantage at one point, 37-36. Parkins connected on another three-pointer with 46 seconds left in the half to put the Lions up by four, 45-41, and William Paterson answered with a Nick Rodriguez trey six seconds later to set the eventual halftime score, 45-44.

Penn State Altoona battled through a tightly-contested second half. Alex McClellan's (York, PA/West York) three-oointer and Charles' layup four minutes into the period gave the Lions a 54-51 advantage.

William Paterson reclaimed the lead, but Penn State Altoona continued to stay within striking distance. Two foul shots from Charles kept the Lions within two, 76-74, with 1:28 remaining. 15 seconds later, a McClellan layup kept the score differential at two points, 78-76. Word converted on a three-point play with 44 seconds to play, narrowing the Pioneers' lead to just one, 80-79. But Penn State Altoona was outscored 6-2 at the free throw line over the final 19 seconds, and William Paterson nabbed the close win.

"We had plenty of chances, and I thought our bench stepped up and played very well and really woke us up in the first half," said McGreal. "Looking to the future, if everyone decides to come back, and we get some other guys straight academically, I truly believe that next year can be another special team. For now, it's time to decompress and just think back on what a great year this season was. Pride!"