LA ROCHE, ALTOONA MEN ADVANCE TO MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT SEMIFINALS

February 22, 2017

#3 La Roche College 77, #6 Pitt-Bradford, 72
The La Roche men's basketball team advanced to the AMCC Tournament Semifinals after defeating Pitt-Bradford 77-72 on Wednesday night.

La Roche traded baskets with Bradford forward Evan Greening who scored the Panthers' first eleven points. The Redhawks combated Greening's early start by going 2 for 3 from distance. Bradford went on a 10-2 run but the Redhawks stormed back and took the lead at 28-26 on a freshman guard Trell Thomas NBA three-pointer. Sophomore guard Zach Gould nailed a three on the next possession to extend the lead to five with 3:55 left in the half. The Panthers scored seven of the next nine points and La Roche held a 33-32 lead at the half.

The second half remained tight as both teams battled to advance. The Panthers cut the deficit to ten with 4:48 left to play but La Roche brought down three consecutive offensive rebounds before junior forward Arnes Bajgora's putback got them back up eleven. Pitt-Bradford again fought back, this time cutting the deficit to just seven with two minutes to play. Senior guard Evan Bonnaure had an answer converting an up and under to get the home squad back up nine with 1:43 left.Bradford's Sahlil Harris answered with a three to cut it to five with 15 seconds left. La Roche turned it over on the next possession but it was too late as the Redhawks advanced to the next round.

Bajgora led the Redhawks with 19 points and eight rebounds. Gould had a great all-around game with 12 points, seven rebounds and five assists while Phifer had 11 points and five rebounds. Greening led the Panthers with 21 points and eight rebounds, while senior guard Fateem Brockington added 20 points and four assists.

Both teams shot around 50% but the difference came on the boards where the Redhawks dominated. They outrebounded Pitt-Bradford 42-27 including 19-9 on the offensive glass.

La Roche advances to the AMCC Tournament Semifinals where they will play #2 Penn State Behrend. Gametime is 3:30pm on Saturday at Medaille College.

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#4 Penn State Altoona 80, #5 Hilbert College 79
Penn State Altoona men's basketball fended off a late comeback attempt by Hilbert College to earn its first postseason victory in nine seasons, as the #4 seed Lions edged the #5 Hawks 80-79 in Wednesday night's AMCC first round game in the Adler Gym.

Junior guard/forward Ishimeal Nance scored a season-high 29 points for Penn State Altoona, including a 4-for-5 performance from three-point range, and also had seven rebounds. Senior guard Javon Wilson recorded his first career double-double, scoring 20 points and grabbing 12 rebounds.

Hilbert (15-11, 11-7 AMCC) was led in scoring by sophomore forward Nicholas Parucki, who put up 20 points and grabbed six rebounds. Freshman guard Hunter Martineau added 16 points and nine assists, while junior guard Jalen Smith put up 15 points. Junior forward Derrek Carman contributed 12 points and 10 rebounds.

Backed by a standing-room-only crowd, Penn State Altoona fed off of the gym's energy early in the first half by opening the game on an 8-2 run. Nance's tip-in started the scoring, and senior forward Jordan Smith, senior guard Tay Charles, and senior guard/forward Anton Lucas followed with layups to give their team an 8-2 lead by 17:08. Wilson's three-pointer at 11:50 helped the Lions back to a six-point lead, 19-13. Hilbert weathered the early storm and worked its way into the lead by halftime. Two scores from Martineau and Jalen Smith's three-pointer helped the visitors tie the game 24-24 by 7:59. Later in the period, Parucki's jumper and two foul shots from Martineau narrowed Penn State Altoona's lead to 33-32, and Jonathan Jackson's layup with two seconds left in the half gave the Hawks a 34-33 advantage.

Penn State Altoona opened the second half with renewed energy, reclaiming the lead and building on it. Wilson's fastbreak score at 18:42 put the Lions back up by one, and Smith's jumper at 17:50 made it 39-36. Nance connected from three-point range at 17:24 to make it 42-36, then connected from beyond the arc twice more over the next four minutes to give Penn State Altoona an eight-point lead, 53-45. Nance's steal and breakaway dunk at 12:39 ignited the Adler crowd, and Charles' three-pointer at 12:02 added to the noise and gave Penn State Altoona its largest lead of the night, 58-49. Luhr's putback layup at 9:43 kept the Lions' lead at eight points, 62-54, before another three-pointer by Nance and a jump shot from Wilson made it 67-58 with 6:01 to go. Back-to-back layups from Wilson kept Penn State Altoona's lead at eight, 71-63, by the three minute mark. But Hilbert, which continued to hang around, made a run late in the half to close the gap to one point. After another putback bucket from Luhr at 2:35 put Penn State Altoona's lead at 73-66, Carman's jumper and Parucki's three-pointer narrowed the gap to four points, 75-71, with 1:09 to play. Layups from Martineau and Parucki decreased the Lions' advantage to 78-75 with 29 seconds remaining, and Carman's layup 16 seconds later made it 78-77. After two Wilson free throws, Hilbert came close to tying the game when Jalen Smith connected on a borderline deep jump shot from the top of the key at the nine second mark. The shot was ruled a two-pointer, and Penn State Altoona remained ahead by one, 80-79.

Two misses from the foul line gave one last opportunity to Hilbert, but Smith's three-pointer from the right corner hit off the back iron at the buzzer, and the Lions grabbed the victory.

Penn State Altoona's previous AMCC playoff win came on February 26, 2008. With tonight's victory, the Lions (14-12, 12-6 AMCC) now travel to top-seeded Medaille College for an AMCC Semifinal matchup this Saturday, February 25 at 1:00 p.m. The winner of that game will play for the conference title on Sunday, February 26 at 1:00 p.m.