Coming off its first loss in over two months, the Lancaster Bible men's basketball team felt some uneasiness as it took the floor on Wednesday night at Horst Athletic Center. Penn St. Abington's early scoring run only increased that uneasiness, but a long lost part of the team picked a great time to reemerge as the Lancaster Bible bench provided the boost the Chargers needed to overcome an early deficit and cruise to a 94-68 victory. The win moves the Chargers to 16-2 overall and 10-1 in North Eastern Athletic Conference play.

Penn St. Abington started quickly as the Nittany Lions took a 17-10 lead on a layup by Alex Agyedu with 13:46 to play in the first half. After a layup from Albert Suniga and dunk from CJ Dunston cut the deficit to three, Lancaster Bible went to its bench and over the next two minutes, used a 7-2 run to gain a 21-19 lead. Leading the way were Jordan Mellinger and Herbie Brown who combined for five of the seven points during the scoring run.

The bench continued to keep the game close and when the Lancaster Bible starters came back on to the floor, they played much more relaxed and went on a 14-4 run to turn a one-point lead into an 11-point advantage at 39-28. The Nittany Lions cut the deficit to six a few minutes later, but the Chargers ultimately took a 10-point lead, 45-35, into halftime.

A 12-2 run over the first 3:50 of the second half blew the game open and the Chargers were off to the races. During the run, Dondre Perry, who led all scorers with 21 points, got loose in the open court and took off from just inside the foul line and threw down one of his thunderous dunks (see photo above) that felt like it shook the entire gym.

With the game winding down, both teams emptied their benches and those players wearing the home whites took full advantage of their opportunity. Freshman John Morant III finished with five points on 2-of-2 shooting and Tayler Wilson added four points and two steals. Wilson's hustle was on full display as he recovered from a turnover of his own by sprinting down the floor 50 feet to steal the ball back.

In addition to the bench, the Lancaster Bible starters were quite good on Wednesday night as well. In addition to Perry's 21 points, fellow junior CJ Dunston had 15 points, 13 rebounds and six assists, while senior Albert Suniga had 12 points and four boards. Junior Luke Roundy added 10 points and five rebounds, while Jon Bird had four points and seven boards. Lancaster Bible Head Coach Marshall Tague was particularly happy with the play from Roundy and Bird.

"Luke and Jon did well defensively on an especially tough assignment," Tague said. "Offensively, they combined for 14 points and 12 rebounds, so its nice to get that type of production from the five. When that position is a threat, we usually do well."

Tague said he thought the bench played a huge part in the win, specifically Jordan Mellinger and Herbie Brown, and said the timing was perfect as the bench as a whole was recently challenged to step up.

"Jordan and Herbie, as well as the others who come off the bench, were challenged to be better recently and tonight they were," Tague said. "Those two guys gave us a spark tonight and that has been lacking for parts of this season. Jordan only played 14 minutes, but they were really good, important minutes for our team."

Tague mentioned the team's uneasiness in the early going, but thought the team responded well which shows they may have turned a corner after a difficult week last week.

"We were complacent in practice last week and it translated into our games," Tague said. "I thought we had a good practice on Tuesday, albeit a bit sloppy, but it was competitive and that came through in tonight's game. For all of our uneasiness about what happened last week, I thought our response tonight was good."

Penn St. Abington (7-11, 6-5 NEAC) was led by Max Alton who had 21 points on 7-of-14 shooting. Many of his buckets came with a hand in his face and his ability to make tough shots kept the Nittany Lions in the game for longer than they may have been otherwise.

Lancaster Bible now has a 1 1/2 game lead over Gallaudet in the NEAC South Division with seven games remaining. The Chargers and Bison meet again on Friday, February 20. In the meantime however, Lancaster Bible is back in action on Saturday when they face Penn St. Berks in Reading, Pa. at 3 p.m.

Notes:
-Lancaster Bible has won four straight over Penn St. Abington.

-The all-time series between the two teams is now tied at 5-5.