Box Score Because of a postponement this past Tuesday, the Lancaster Bible men's basketball team had to wait four more days than they thought to play their first game of the second semester. It appears they were tired of practicing against one another as the team put together one of its best 40 minute spans of the season in a 77-69 win over NEAC rival Penn St. Berks. 

Four players recorded double-doubles led by sophomore CJ Dunston who finished with 19 points and 12 rebounds. Fellow sophomore Dondre Perry added 16 points and 11 boards, while Albert Suniga had 14 points and 11 rebounds. Junior Naheer Mirza recorded his double-double with 10 points and 10 assists as he became just the second Lancaster Bible player in the past decade to record 10 assists in a single game. (Keith Keltner had 10 assists last season against SUNY Cobleskill.)

On Saturday, the Chargers trailed 22-20 with 9:20 to play in the first half, but over the next four minutes, Dunston imposed his will on both ends of the floor. He scored eight of the next 12 points for the Chargers and recorded a rebound, assist and block. His outburst helped propel the Chargers to a 38-31 halftime lead as Lancaster Bible shot 45.7% from the floor during the first 20 minutes.

The Nittany Lions (2-8, 2-2 NEAC) stormed out of the gate in the second half as they opened the half on a 9-2 run and tied the game at 40-40 on a three-point play by senior Tom Smith. Once again the game became a back-and-forth affair as neither team could break away. Dunston's layup with with 11:24 made it 51-50 Lancaster Bible and three minutes later, a huge three-pointer by Suniga pushed the lead to six at 57-51. Lancaster Bible Head Coach Marshall Tague thought Suniga's shot may have been the turning point and Perry's alley-oop two minutes after that was the exclamation point.

"I thought we gathered ourselves well after they tied the game and then Albert's shot was a big boost," Tague said. "Dre's dunk was big for us too as we began to seize the game."

Perry's dunk increased the Chargers' lead to 65-53 with 7:09 to play and the Chargers maintained a double-digit lead for almost the rest of the game as the Nittany Lions tried to make a game of it late, but Lancaster Bible was a perfect 4-for-4 from the free throw line in the final 10 seconds.

"We've been preaching defense to the guys and today defense, along with rebounding, won out," Tague said. "It's not very easy to win on the road and we did a good job of overcoming that today."

Despite being 3-0 in NEAC play during the first semester, the Chargers closed the semester with two straight defeats in which they didn't play very well. Tague said the team talked about proving things to themselves, not anyone else.

"The guys were itching to play today for sure," Tague said. "We need to focus on ourselves and prove to ourselves that we can play well and bring the intensity that is needed every single time we touch the floor."

Tague said the team effort was great, especially the group's ability to get up and down the floor.

"CJ was great today," Tague said. "He was active on both ends of the floor and I thought Dre had a great game as well. Our offensive transition was solid and our depth really showed as we got strong play from a lot of people."

Lancaster Bible (5-5, 4-0 NEAC) will have to wait for a while to play again however as they don't play until next Friday when they face Wells in Aurora, N.Y. at 6 p.m.


Notes:
-The four NEAC wins matches the program-record for conference wins in a season as the Chargers won four during the 2011-12 season and just three last year. 

-The five wins also matches last season's total as well with 15 games to play.

-Because of Wells' loss to Penn St. Abington on Saturday, the Chargers will go to sleep tonight alone in first place.