The second-seeded Penn St. Behrend men's basketball team claimed their sixth AMCC conference title, and first since 2014, as they defeated #1 La Roche College 67-65 on Sunday evening. Tipping off at 6pm, the AMCC men's basketball title game was delayed by three hours due to a weather-related power outage.
Despite La Roche scoring the first bucket of the game on a Tyler Frederick layup, it was the Behrend Lions who took over and controlled the scoreboard for the remainder of the half. Three straight baskets by Behrend put them up 6-2 after two and half minutes of play until a Ray Quan Phifer jump shot knotted the game at eight. The Lions slowly started to pull away, but the Redhawk defense kept their lead with five until a Dan Wanker jump shot at the 4:47 mark gave Behrend a seven point lead, their largest lead of the game to that point. A Frederick layup brought La Roche back within four until Behrend's Jacob Zeis nailed a three pointer with 0:16 on the clock to give the Lions the 29-22 halftime lead.
The Lion lead stayed much the same throughout the first seven minutes of the second half until Justin Gorny drained a three from the top of the key as the shot clock expired at the 12:54 mark and Malike Brinson matched him with another three just thirty second later to put Behrend up 45-33.
A Mike Fischer free throw with 9:38 on the clock gave the Lions a 14 point advantage and their largest lead of the night. The Redhawks fought back as three different players scored consecutive layups to bring La Roche witin 8 (51-43) and brought the crowd to their feet. Two Behrend free throws put them back up 10 before the Redhawks went on a 7-0 run over the next 35 seconds to close within three (53-50).
The Lions kept the score in their favor until Phifer drained a three with 3:33 to play to knot the game at 59. A Fischer layup put the Lions up two, but La Roche responded with six straight points by Frederick and Phifer to go up 65-61 with one minute to play. Gorny took the game into his own hands by scoring the game's final six points on a layup and four free throws to set the final at 67-65.
Gorny and Fischer led the Lions with 14 points and six rebounds a piece. Phifer led all scorers with 21 points, while Frederick added 17 points and five boards.
Behrend will receive the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA national tournament. The bracket and seedings will be announced on Monday.
2019 AMCC All-Tournament Team
Mike Fischer, Penn St. Behrend
Dan Wanker, Penn St. Behrend
Tyler Frederick, La Roche
Zach Gould, La Roche
Nate Christian, Mount Aloysius
Brandon Roach, Medaille
Jeremy VanDuLuitgaarden, D'Youville
John Noce, Franciscan