The Lancaster Bible men's basketball team won its third straight game on Wednesday night as the Chargers defeated Penn St. Berks, 83-74 at Horst Athletic Center. The North Eastern Athletic Conference opener for both teams, the Chargers have now won eight straight regular season NEAC contests dating back to last season.

A close game early, the Chargers used a 38-20 run over the final 15:14 of the first half to turn a one-point lead into a commanding 19-point halftime lead, 52-33. The Chargers shot 54.5 percent (18-of-33) in the opening 20 minutes, while the Nittany Lions shot just 34.3 percent (12-of-35). A beautiful 3-on-1 break that ended with a CJ Dunston dunk with 52 seconds to play in the first half gave the Chargers their biggest lead of the half at 52-32, before the Nittany Lions' Christian Burggraf hit one of two free throws 26 seconds left to produce the halftime score.

Lancaster Bible enjoyed its largest lead of the game just over three minutes into the second half after back-to-back free throws from Albert Suniga gave the Chargers a 60-36 advantage. From there however, a lull in play and a mixture of bad possessions and turnovers plagued the Chargers for the rest of the game as Berks took control of the play and eventually cut Lancaster Bible's lead to five with 6:38 to play. Led by Dameon Nixon and Baba Waples, the Nittany Lions chipped away at the deficit and Waples finally quieted the crowd with his only three-pointer of the game to make it 70-65 Lancaster Bible.

The Chargers extended the lead back to double digits over the next two minutes and though the Nittany Lions cut the deficit to 79-74 with 1:22 to play, the Chargers remained calm and scored on their next possession to make it 81-74. After Nixon missed a layup on the other end, Dondre Perry put the game away with a thunderous dunk that sent the "Red Sea" student section into a frenzy and gave Lancaster Bible its fourth straight victory over Penn St. Berks.

The game produced some strange statistics as the Chargers shot 70.6 percent (12-of-17) in the second half, but were outscored by the Nittany Lions, 41-31 as Penn St. Berks was 15-of-35 in the second half. Lancaster Bible held a 37-29 rebounding edge over 40 minutes, but the Nittany Lions dominated the offensive glass as they pulled down 12 offensive boards to Lancaster Bible's six. 

"Just some weird numbers tonight," Lancaster Bible Head Coach Marshall Tague said. "We didn't have a 3-point attempt in the second half, but shot great from the floor and at the same time committed 13 second half turnovers."

Tague said the win, especially a conference win, is a good thing, but the Chargers have a lot of things to work on.

"We obviously will take a conference win any way we can and it's good to pull out a win in a game that got close," Tague said. "However, I think right now we are a little tentative at points of the game and that is turning into mistakes we don't normally make and then we are struggling to reel everything back in."

Tague continued to balance positives with negatives as he thought about the game after the Chargers' victory.

"We got to the free throw line tonight much more than we have which is something we have talked about, but we got killed on the offensive glass and stood around and watched way too much," Tague said.

For all of the struggles, the Chargers' 83 points is a season high as the Chargers eclipsed the 70-point mark for the first time all season. Perry led the way with a career-high 23 points, while Suniga had another typical Suniga game with 14 points, 10 rebounds and six assists. Dunston finished with 13 points, seven boards and for assists on 6-of-9 shooting, while Naheer Mirza had nine points and a season-high five assists.

In his last four games against Penn St. Berks, Dunston has scored 64 points, grabbed 35 rebounds and shot 29-of-43 (67.4 percent) from the floor.

Nixon led four Penn St. Berks players in double figures with 17 points.

Lancaster Bible (3-1, 1-0 NEAC) returns to the floor on Saturday when the Chargers face new NEAC member Bryn Athyn at 3 p.m. Last season, the Chargers lost to the Wildcats, 76-60 in one of their worst outings of the season. After leading 38-37 at the break, Lancaster Bible was outscored 39-22 in the second half en route to its second straight loss.

Tague knows Saturday's game will not be any easier than last season's visit.

"They are a tough team," Tague said. "Bryn Athyn looks to attack all of the time and they have some really good players."

Saturday marks the final NEAC game of the first semester for the Chargers as they will end the semester with two non-conference contests against Cincinnati Christian (Sunday, Dec. 7) and Mount Aloysius (Mon., Dec. 15).

Notes:
-Lancaster Bible now leads the all-time series with Penn St. Berks, 7-5. 

-Perry's previous game-high was 21 points against Manhattanville last season.