Box Score It's just one win, hopefully the first of many, but it couldn't have come at a better time for the Lancaster Bible men's basketball team. The Chargers scored 54 points in the first half and held off a hard-charging Penn St. Abington team to earn their first win of the season, a 91-86 decision on Tuesday night at Horst Athletic Center.

The Chargers (1-3, 1-0 NEAC) opened the game on a 9-1 run and surprised the high-scoring Nittany Lions and Lancaster Bible wasn't done there as they eventually upped the lead to 23 points as they led 39-16 with 7:59 to play after CJ Dunston drained a three-pointer.

"We haven't shot the ball well, but I think we sort of thought we were due," Chargers Head Coach Marshall Tague said. "We have been working really hard in practice to find the open man and I thought we did that tonight. The fact that we were knocking down shots only helped our cause."

Penn St. Abington (2-3, 0-1 NEAC) closed the gap to 14 prior to halftime as the Chargers led, 54-40 at the break and the Nittany Lions continued to shrink the deficit in the second half as they trailed just 69-65 with 7:50 to play after Avery Barnes collected an offensive rebound and was left wide open for a layup. 

"Even early on in the first half, we said big, early leads don't usually last against good teams with good players," Tague said. "I guess we sort of prepared for them to make a run, but I thought we responded really well."

"Really well" is probably an understatement as the Chargers turned right around and extended the lead back to 11 as Dave Long hit a rare three-pointer and then hit a bucket in the paint. Trevor Marsh knocked down two free throws with 6:02 to play to give the Chargers a 76-65 advantage.

The Nittany Lions made one more late run as they forced a turnover with under a minute to play and with 30 seconds left, Barnes hit a jumper in the paint to make the score, 87-84 Chargers. Albert Suniga and CJ Dunston hit both of their free throws on the Chargers' final two possessions to ice the game and help Lancaster Bible snap a three-game losing streak to Penn St. Abington.

"It's just one win and I hope we can use this to string together a bunch of wins, but it was important to win this game today," Tague said. "It can get tough to keep morale high when you're losing and tonight's win removes all of that. The team's confidence has been getting better and this will only help that."

Dunston led the Chargers with 22 points and 12 rebounds, while Albert Suniga had another consistent night as he scored 20 points on 5-of-12 shooting, including 3-of-4 from beyond the arc and he was 7-of-8 from the free throw line. Suniga also added six boards and six assists. Tague said he was pleased with Dunston's play, as well as Dondre Perry, who had 10 points, four boards and four assists.

"CJ has earned his starting spot and has really worked hard," Tague said. "He's rebounding and is putting forth great effort. Dre is putting the ball on the floor and driving and Albert is hitting shots. It's nice to see it all come together."

Those great things are in addition to Naheer Mirza who had 12 points and nine assists and Jordan Mellinger who had nine points.

The Chargers' 91 points are the most in a game since January 24, 2012 when Lancaster Bible scored 103 in an overtime win over Penn St. Abington. For the Nittany Lions, Mike Marvin led all scorers with 33 points and grabbed 15 rebounds. In five career games against the Chargers, Marvin has scored 20 or more points every single time and has gone for 30+ twice. 

Lancaster Bible is off until next Tuesday when they travel to The Pit in Phoenixville, Pa. to take on Valley Forge Christian at 8 p.m. The Chargers won the regular season meeting between the two teams last season in Lancaster, 70-65 before the Patriots returned the favor in the NCCAA East Region Final, 70-55 and advanced to the NCCAA National Tournament.