Men’s Basketball Starts AMCC Schedule with 104-68 Win
ALTOONA, Pa. – The Penn State Altoona men's basketball team opened its Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference schedule with a home matchup against Alfred State College on Wednesday afternoon, and the Lions prevailed 104-68 in Adler Arena.
Penn State Altoona (5-6, 1-0 AMCC) leaned on its transition game, outscoring Alfred State (4-8, 0-1 AMCC) 29-9 in fastbreak situations. The Lions also found success from three-point range, going 14-for-29 from beyond the arc to tie for the most three-pointers made in a game in program history.
"Tremendous effort today. What a way to open the conference season against a very improved and talented Alfred State team," said Penn State Altoona head coach David McGreal. "We know this season we're going to get everybody's best punch. Alfred State came out and played really well early on, but as the game went on, we were able to establish tempo on offense and really kind of keep them out of rhythm on defense."
The Lions' Andruw Harman (Chesapeake, VA/Great Bridge) led all scorers with a season-high 22 points, going 10-for-14 from the field. Mason Bush (Pittsburgh, PA/Seneca Valley) had 16 points, PJ Charles (Altoona, PA/Altoona) scored 12 points and grabbed a team-high nine rebounds in his return, and Robbie Hicks (Melbourne, FL/Rockledge) added 11 points. Saivon Word (Upper Marlboro, MD/Frederick Douglass) posted game-highs with eight assists and six steals.
"Big performances by the guys you'd expect, including our preseason player of the year [Harman] who led us in scoring with 22. Mason had another good game and has been playing really well for us," said McGreal. "Saivon flirted with a quadruple double-double, and it was nice to see big 24 [Charles] back in the paint doing his normal stuff."
Alfred State got 12 points from Paris Jamison, and Isaiah Kostyal scored 11 points for the Pioneers. The visitors also had 10-point performances by Gus O'Connell and Cody Schneider.
A pair of early threes by Hicks and Bush helped Penn State Altoona to a 6-3 lead, and Harman's dunk at 17:08 increased it to 10-3. Alex McClellan (York, PA/West York) hit a three-pointer at 13:32 to make it 20-13, and Harman connected from three-point range at 12:16 to put his team up by nine, 25-16. Justin Sheetz (Eldersburg, MD/Liberty) made a layup and foul shot at 11:02 to give the Lions a 10-point lead, 28-18, and a Dwayne Jones (Philadelphia, PA/Greater Johnstown) dunk at 9:39 set the advantage at 33-18.
Alfred State got to within eight at the 3:32 mark, when an O'Connell three-pointer cut the Lions' lead to 42-34. But Penn State Altoona closed the half on a 15-3 scoring run, capped by a Sheetz trey in the closing seconds that put the home team up 57-37 by halftime.
Penn State Altoona took control for good in the second half, growing its lead consistently throughout the period. Harman's three at 19:14 kept the lead at 20, 60-40, and a pair of Charles foul shots at 14:17 got the Lions' advantage to over 30 points, 75-44. The home team boosted its lead to as many as 38 points, which came on a Chris Jarosz (Toronto, ON/Andrews Osborne Academy) three-pointer with 56 seconds to play.
Penn State Altoona finished the game with significant scoring advantages over Alfred State in points off turnovers (29-10), points in the paint (50-20), and bench points (46-26). The team made 41 shots from the field, tying for the seventh-most field goals made in a game in team history.
"The bottom line is that, if we continue to share the basketball, shoot the way we did, and play defense the way we did, we'll feel confident moving forward in our conference schedule," said McGreal. "Now we have a big one on Saturday at Hilbert."
Penn State Altoona continues its AMCC schedule this Saturday, January 7, when the Lions will make their first conference road trip of the season to take on Hilbert College at 1:00 p.m.
