The Hamilton College (24-4) men's basketball team erased an 11-point lead and scored six of their final eight points from the free-throw line to defeat Penn State Behrend (23-5) 72-70 in the first round of the 2019 NCAA Division III Tournament on Friday night.
Behrend's Justin Gorny and Mike Fischer each scored 17 points for the Lions, while Gorny also led in rebounds for the double-double with 11 boards. Andy Niland added 10 points and seven assists. Kena Gilmore led all scorers with 26 points for Hamilton. The Lions held a 9-2 advantage behind the arc but only took four free throws to the Continentals 23 chances at the line
Penn St. Behrend held the Continentals scoreless for the first four minutes to set the tempo, as the Lions managed to jump out to an 8-0 lead. Hamilton got its first basket at 15:28 thanks to Mike Grassi, but the Continentals went 1-for-9 in the first seven minutes. A combined 21 points were scored in the first 11 minutes. Back-to-back triples from Gorny and Fischer, before a Kenny Fukon layup got the Lions an eight-point lead at halftime (35-27). Hamilton's 27 first-half points is the lowest output in the first 20 minutes this season. Behrend held the Continentals 1-for-11 from three-point range in the first half.
The Lions got their first double-digit lead at 42-31 early in the second half off a layup from Malike Brinson. Hamilton cut it to one at 46-45 with a layup from Gilmore at 12:52 to force a Behrend timeout, as Gilmore had 20 of Hamilton's 45 points after that layup. Behrend responds with a triple by Nolan Nuara for the big ensuing bucket and the Lions were able to get the lead back to six with 10:33 remaining. Wanker's triple put it at 67-61 with three minutes remaining, but Hamilton got the traditional three-point play to make it 67-64. The Continentals made four straight free throws on back-to-back fouls with two minutes to play to get within one at 69-68. Gilmore drives it in after a Behrend miss to give Hamilton its first lead at 70-69 with 1:30 on the clock and then forced a shot-clock violation to get the ball back with 1:02 left. The Continentals stop Fischer from driving in the lane forcing the Lions to foul to get sent to the line once again. Another pair of free throws forces a three-point play by Behrend. With an intentional foul by Hamilton with 10.2 seconds, Niland hit the second of two free throws and Behrend got the ball down by two. The Lions could not get the final two shots to drop from Fischer and Dan Wanker with time expiring.