Basketball Grinds Out 59-51 Win Over La
Roche
On Saturday
The
Behrend Lions men's basketball team grinded out an eight point win on
Saturday night to improve to 19-4 overall and 13-3 in the league.
With the win in the Junker Center,
Behrend remains undefeated at home on the
season at 12-0. The victory helped push Behrend's home winning
percentage under head coach Dave Niland to 86% since the Junker Center
opened in 2001.
La Roche came to play opening a nine-point lead midway through the first
twenty minutes. The Redhawks held the blue and white to 31% from the field
and 11% from three-point territory. Behrend pushed late behind senior big
man Kevin Buczynski's (Erie/Villa Maria) 14 point first-half performance to
cut into the gap and entered halftime trailing 27-24.
The blue and white would rally playing in front of a crowd around 600, the two teams traded baskets early in the second half. Then the senior posts moved things along for the Behrend Lions with 6-5 Dan Ziegler (Johnsonburg/Johnsonburg) driving to the hoop and converting to put Behrend up 36-34 at the 12:16 mark. He followed with a six-foot bank shot a minute later, while Dave Gahan (Erie/East) also hit from the paint to keep Behrend up, 40-37.
Buczynski, who is second on the all-time scoring list with 1,572 career points, was too much for the Redhawks connecting on 14 of 21 from the floor to score 31 of Behrend's 59 points.
Saturday's win sets up a huge game against Lake Erie on Wednesday in the Junker that could decide the AMCC regular-season title.
La Roche falls to
11-12 and 8-8 in league play. Zack Kostorick led the Redhawks with 14
points, six rebounds, and three assists.
Next for the blue and white
is a
big game on Wednesday, February 20, the Lake Erie Storm (17-6, 13-3) comes
into the Junker for a game that will decide the AMCC
regular-season title. Earlier this season the blue and white locked up the
Storm 58-42 in Ohio.