WASHINGTON, Pa. – In an early season battle of undefeated teams, Washington & Jefferson College rallied from a second half deficit to defeat Penn State Altoona men's basketball 103-102 in the Salvitti Family Gymnasium on Tuesday night.

W&J (3-0) trailed by 17 points nearly five minutes into the second half, but the Presidents slowed down Penn State Altoona's offense to hand the Lions (2-1) their first loss of the season.

"Very disappointed in the outcome. Guys played their hearts out, but for the first time this year, we didn't finish the game the way we are capable," said Penn State Altoona head coach David McGreal. "Hats off to the Presidents and coach [Ethan] Stewart-Smith. They never gave up."

Both teams found success shooting the basketball, as W&J connected on 50.7 percent of their field goal attempts while Penn State Altoona shot 49.4 percent from the floor. The Lions' total of 40 made field goals ties for the eighth-most in a game in team history, and their total of 102 points represents the 11th-most in a game for the program.

Varun Ajjarapu (Tampa, FL/Berkeley Prep) led Penn State Altoona with 22 points, tied for the team-high in assists with four, and grabbed five rebounds. Saivon Word (Upper Marlboro, MD/Frederick Douglass) came off the bench to produce 17 points, four assists, and two steals.

Andruw Harman (Chesapeake, VA/Great Bridge) contributed 15 points and six boards, Robbie Hicks (Rockledge, FL/Rockledge) scored 12 points to go along with five rebounds, and Alex McClellan (York, PA/West York) had 12 points and three steals. Y'shua Bragg (Pittsburgh, PA/Carrick) posted game-highs with nine rebounds and five blocks while scoring seven points, and PJ Charles (Altoona, PA/Altoona) had seven points and seven rebounds.

W&J's Alexander Skowron led all scorers with 27 points, while Kyran Mitchell finished two rebounds shy of a triple-double with 26 points, 10 assists, and eight rebounds. J.R. Mazza added 20 points for the Presidents, and Michael Bigley had 11 points.

Throughout the first half, Penn State Altoona's offense fired on all cylinders. The Lions connected on 57.4 percent of their attempts from the field, including hitting five three-pointers.

The first several minutes of the game featured back-and-forth scoring, with the teams trading baskets to keep things close. Down 19-15 four minutes in, the Lions used a layup by Word and three-point play from Ajjarapu to jump ahead 20-19. Back-to-back layups from Bragg and Ajjarapu kept Penn State Altoona up 28-26 by 10:42, and a pair of baskets from McClellan increased the Lions' lead to 32-26.

Three-pointers from Hicks and Charles grew Penn State Altoona's advantage to 40-30 by the 8-minute mark. Buckets by Harman and Charles kept the difference at 10 points, and Word's layup at 5:31 gave his team a 46-34 lead. Word converted a three-point play at 4:31 to make it 49-38, and McClellan's layup 15 seconds later gave the Lions a 13-point lead, 51-38.

Mazza's three-pointer brought W&J back to within six points, 57-51, with 1:50 left in the period. But Harman's layup and a McClellan three-pointer helped Penn State Altoona get to halftime with a 62-53 lead.

Penn State Altoona expanded its lead early in the second half. Ajjarapu's layup and McClellan's trey put the visitors up 67-55. After Hicks' basket, Ajjarapu made a layup and sank a foul shot to make it a 15-point game, and his three-pointer at 15:21 gave Penn State Altoona its largest lead of the game, 78-61.

W&J began to claw its way back into the game, trimming its deficit to single digits on Skowron's layup at 11:46 that brought the Presidents to within nine, 80-71. A three-pointer from Mazza at 8:42 got the home team to within seven, 90-83.

After Penn State Altoona recovered its double-digit lead, W&J again narrowed the gap to single digits. Nick Gearhart's three-pointer at 5:02 cut the Lions' advantage to seven, and free throws from Mazza, Skowron, Mitchell, and Bigley drew the Presidents to within one, 100-99, with just over two minutes remaining. Harman's put-back at 1:41 gave Penn State Altoona a little breathing room, 102-99, but Mitchell responded with a jumper 22 seconds later to make it a one-point game again.

The Lions extended their next possession by securing two offensive rebounds, but they were unable to come up with a basket. W&J followed that with a layup from Gearhart with nine seconds left that gave the Presidents their first lead since the early stages of the first half. Penn State Altoona came up empty on its next possession, and W&J hung on to seal the come-from-behind win.

W&J's second half performance was helped by a 15-for-30 performance from the field, as well as converting on 17-of-27 trips to the free throw line. The Presidents also limited Penn State Altoona to a 38.2 percent field goal percentage during the second half, following the Lions' hot performance shooting the ball in the first half.

"The change in the way the game was being officiated in the second half really hurt us. We only gave up six free throw attempts in the first half, and then in the second half, they shot 27 free throws. So I'll have to watch the film and see what we did wrong, because it seemed like we were playing the same way defensively," said McGreal. "All in all, it's a game we should've had but let slip away."

Penn State Altoona men's basketball continues non-conference play this weekend in the P&W/Washo, Inc. Electric City Classic, hosted by Marywood University. The Lions will take on Penn State Abington on Friday, November 19 at 8:00 p.m., then face either Cairn University or Marywood on Saturday, November 20 at 2:00 or 4:00 p.m.

"Hopefully we learn from this and get better," said McGreal. "We have a big tourney this weekend against good competition, We will be ready."