Behrend Men Sit One Game Out of First Heading into Key Road Trip
The
Behrend men's basketball team is currently in second place in the AMCC as they prepare for the their most important road trip to date. The
5-1 Behrend Lions face off against first-place Lake Erie (6-0) on Friday,
January 20 at 7:00 p.m. From there Behrend travels to fourth-place La
Roche (3-3) on Saturday, January 21, tip-off is scheduled for 6:00 p.m.
With every other team in the AMCC suffering at least three losses, Friday night's match-up is for first-place in the conference. If Behrend wins, they will be tied with the Storm at 5-1 in the AMCC, but would occupy first because of the head-to-head win. If the Storm win, they will sit atop the league with a two-game lead.
Both teams rank near each other in almost all major statistical categories. The Storm are fourth in scoring offense, while Behrend ranks fifth. Behrend has the league's top-ranked defense, allowing only 65.5 points per game, while Lake Erie comes in right behind, allowing 65.8 points per game. Behrend's most significant edge is in rebounding, where the blue and white out rebound their opponents by an average of 8.3 a game. Lake Erie is seventh in the conference, with -2.8 margin.
"This is a big road trip for us", said head coach Dave Niland. "Lake Erie is going to be the biggest conference challenge we face all season." The two schools saw each other three times last season, twice in the regular season and once in the playoffs. "We didn't play as well as we wanted to when we went down there last season, so hopefully we can execute our game plan better this time around", said coach Niland. Behrend lost last season at Lake Erie 42-65, but were able to come back the very next game, this time in the playoffs, and beat the Storm 56-55 on a neutral court in Pitt-Greensburg.
Behrend returns home again on January 24, when they host the Hilbert Hawks. Tip-off for that contest is scheduled for 8:00 p.m.
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