Men's hoops earns convincing victory over Penn State Behrend, 80-67
Box Score GREENSBURG, Pa: The Pitt-Greensburg men's basketball earned a convincing 80-67 victory over Penn State Behrend Sunday afternoon at home.
The Bobcats now stand at 5-1 in conference play, after beating the defending AMCC champs who were undefeated in league play until today. UPG is now tied atop the AMCC standings after six league games.
On Sunday, the Lions would score the first bucket of the game to take an early 2-0 lead. That 2 point lead would be their largest of the day. A stingy Bobcat defense limited Behrend to just 37% from the floor in the first half, while UPG shot 17 of 32 (53%) to help build a 40-34 halftime lead.
The Bobcats were able to pull away in the second half, largely in part to the play of junior standout
Jerell Figueroa. Figueroa dropped 15 of his team high 19 points in the second half, including a perfect 3 of 3 from three point range.
Three other Bobcats recorded double digit scoring efforts, including
Mike Connelly who had 18 points on 7 of 9 shooting.
Marcus Thomas added 15 points while freshman
Matt Darby chipped in 11 points to go along with 5 rebounds and 5 assists.
UPG finished the day shooting an impressive 55% from the floor including 10 of 21 from three point range. The defense limited the Lions to just 41% from the floor, their lowest output of the season.
The win caps a stretch of 3 games in 5 days for Pitt-Greensburg, the Bobcats went 2-1 in those games.
After a tough loss to Medaille on Saturday, UPG posted an impressive effort on Sunday, taking it to the defending champs, marking the second year in row the Bobcats have sent the Lions out of Greensburg with a loss.
Pitt-Greensburg
will next travel to La Roche College on Wednesday (Jan 14th) for an 8pm tip-off with the Redhawks.
