The Penn State Altoona men’s basketball team continued its “season of firsts” on Friday afternoon, adding the program’s first-ever Eastern College Athletic Conference postseason victory to its 2021-22 resume.
The fourth-seeded Lions (19-7) notched an 85-73 win over fifth seed United States Merchant Marine Academy (15-10) at Rutgers-Newark’s Golden Dome in Friday’s ECAC Division III Championship Tournament quarterfinal game. With the victory, Penn State Altoona advances to the ECAC Tournament semifinal round, where it will face ninth-seeded William Paterson University on Saturday, March 5 at 3:00 p.m. in Newark.
Six different Penn State Altoona players finished with double-digit scoring totals.
PJ Charles scored a game-high 18 points for Penn State Altoona, going 7-for-9 from the floor and 4-for-6 from the free throw line. He also secured a team-high nine rebounds to go along with four steals, three assists, and a block.
Alex McClellan finished with 14 points while adding three assists and three steals. Robbie Hicks and Saivon Word added 13 points each, with Hicks also recording six rebounds and two assists and Word posting six assists and four steals.
Mason Bush came off the bench to provide 12 points and seven boards, and Andruw Harman contributed 11 points, eight rebounds, and a pair of blocks.
Merchant Marine got 16 points, eight assists, and five steals from Isaac Vencel, while Bryce Bristow and Kody Robinson added 15 points apiece for the Mariners.
Penn State Altoona worked its way out to a 10-point lead, 42-32, by halftime, helped by a 17-for-32 (53.1 percent) performance from the field.
Hicks’ three-pointer at 14:27 set Penn State Altoona’s lead at 10-6, and treys from Hicks and Bush over the next two minutes made it 16-6. Harman’s dunk at 12:16 upped Penn State Altoona’s lead to 18-6, and two baskets from Word and a jump shot from McClellan increased the advantage to 25-11 by the 9:19 mark. Hicks’ jumper at 5:04 gave Penn State Altoona its largest lead of the day, 35-18.
Robinson’s three-pointer helped bring Merchant Marine back to within six, 39-32, with 45 seconds remaining in the half. But the Lions ended the period on a positive note, with Word hitting a free throw and then scoring a putback bucket to make it 42-32.
Penn State Altoona added to its lead in the second half, rebuilding it to 16 at one point later in the period. Charles’ basket and free throw at 9:59 was followed by a McClellan three-pointer and two Word jump shots to make it 71-55 with 7:45 to play.
Merchant Marine whittled away at its deficit, trimming it to as little as six late in the game. Two foul shots by Vencel brought the Mariners within 76-68 at 1:28. But two free throws apiece from Harman, McClellan, and Charles, one foul shot from Bush, and a Charles layup helped Penn State Altoona ice the victory in the game’s closing seconds.