The Lancaster Bible men's basketball team won its eighth straight game on Wednesday night as the Chargers rolled past Penn College, 77-57 at Horst Athletic Center. Dondre Perry's dunk in the first five seconds of the game set the tone from the get-go as the Chargers scored 14 fast-break points and used their athleticism to run over the Wildcats all night. 

After junior CJ Dunston won the opening tip-off to Naheer Mirza, the senior point guard found Perry down the wing. Perry looked up and literally no one was covering him or in between he and the basket. He got a full head of steam, jumped and through down a dunk that gave Penn College a preview of what would come over the next 40 minutes.

The Wildcats, to their credit, kept the game close over the first 10 minutes of the contest, but the Chargers kept running and increased their lead to 25-16 with 8:26 to play on a fastbreak layup from Mirza. Just over three minutes later, the lead was bumped up to 13 points as Perry drilled a three-pointer with 4:59 to play in the first half. Penn College cut the deficit to seven with just over two minutes to play, but the Chargers hit three 3-pointers on their final three possessions of the first half to lead by 13 heading into the break at 43-30.

Perry increased the Chargers' lead to 20 just 4:11 into the second half as he again scored on a fastbreak layup off of a pass from Mirza. Perry's bucket was part of a 15-0 run for the Chargers who led 49-36 with 16:50 play and 4:12 later led 64-36 and effectively put the game away.

Dunston had one of his best games of the year as he had 21 points on 8-of-9 shooting. He also grabbed nine rebounds, had three assists, three steals and three blocks. One of his blocks, midway through the second half, got put into the 10th row of the bleachers as he swatted away a 3-point attempt.

Mirza finished with 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting, including 3-of-3 from beyond the arc, while Perry had 14 points and six boards. Jordan Mellinger had seven points, while Jon Bird had six points and eight rebounds. 

Lancaster Bible Head Coach Marshall Tague was pleased with start, especially coming off a play the team has worked on.

"We just haven't won many tip-offs this season or it has been too contested and we aren't able to run the play," Tague said. "Tonight though, Naheer found Dre and there was just no one in front of him."

Tague said the team executed the game plan well as they looked to run, but also work the ball inside to create more chances from the outside.

"More than just run, we wanted to rebound well and react quickly and get up the floor," Tague said. "The guys like to run and we are successful when we do it properly. The other aspect was trying to work the ball inside to help open things up and give us a chance to then work the ball back outside and help us shoot some more 3-pointers. Being 8-of-16 on 3-pointers tonight was big for us and certainly something we have talked about recently."

Another positive for the Chargers was the early foul trouble that Penn College's top scorer, Kevin Laurence-El found himself in. After two early fouls, Laurence-El picked up his third just 5:12 into the contest and was done for the first half. 

"We forced him to guard the post after he picked up his second foul and got him to pick up the third pretty quickly," Tague said. "It was obviously big for us because he is one of their best players and can be dangerous from beyond the arc."

Tague offered great compliments of Dunston as the junior continues to get better and impress his teammates and coaches.

"He is great on both ends," Tague said. "He still has room to grow, but he makes plays and even when he gets beat, he makes up the ground faster than most players and recovers to make a play on the ball."

Tague also mentioned senior Albert Suniga who only had three points, but added three rebounds and five assists.

"He had his hands full defensively tonight and did a good job," Tague said. "The things he does don't show up on the stat sheet, but are big for our group."

Lancaster Bible returns to the floor on Saturday when they take on Penn St. Abington in Abington, Pa. at 3 p.m. A win would tie the longest winning streak in school history that was set in 2000-01.

Notes:
-Last year's team also won eight games in a row.

-Lancaster Bible is 17-3 at home over the past two seasons.