The noise you heard late Friday night was the collective sigh of relief coming from the Lancaster Bible College men's basketball team after the Chargers, 103-84 victory over Penn St. Berks at Horst Athletic Center. The win snaps Lancaster Bible's two-game losing streak and moves the Chargers to 2-4 overall this season and 2-2 in North Eastern Athletic Conference play. The Nittany Lions fall to 2-6 overall and 2-2 in conference action.

How it Happened: The first 2:27 of the contest felt eerily similar to last season's Lancaster Bible team as the Chargers went up-and-down the floor, hit three 3-pointers and forced three turnovers en route to a 13-0 lead. With the Horst Athletic Center crowd in a frenzy, Penn St. Berks called timeout and slowly began chipping away its deficit.

A layup from Monte Stokes cut the Nittany Lions' deficit to seven at 22-15 with 11:46 remaining in the half and then it was time for the Baba Waples show. Waples took the game over for Penn St. Berks and not only began putting a thorn in the side of the the Lancaster Bible players, but the Chargers' fans as well. Waples hit a 3-pointer with 9:24 remaining to trim Lancaster Bible's lead to 27-25 and though an Austin Feaster layup restored the Chargers four-point lead, Nelson Hine scored the game's next five points and gave Penn St. Berks its first lead at 30-29 with 8:22 left.

Another layup from Stokes with 4:45 remaining gave the Nittany Lions a 39-35 lead, but Lancaster Bible tied it on back-to-back layups from Alex Whitt and Herbie Brown. Waples connected on two late 3-pointers for Penn St. Berks as he had 20 points in the opening half, but a jumper from Herbie Brown with 34 seconds left pulled the Chargers to within two points at 51-49, where the score remained through halftime.

Austin Brown nearly matched Waples in the first half as he poured in 15 points, as did fellow Brown, Herbie. The Browns had 30 points on 11-of-14 shooting for the Chargers in the opening 20 minutes and also combined for nine rebounds.

Lancaster Bible freshman Brett Cataudella came out on fire in the second half as he scored six of the team's first eight points, all of them coming at the free throw line as the Chargers worked the ball into the post and Cataudella was able to draw foul-after-foul. The teams began to match bucket-for-bucket, but it continued to be Cataudella who carried the Chargers as his layup with 15:08 remaining gave the Chargers a 63-60 lead. 

The Chargers maintained their three-point lead until the midway point of the half when the Lancaster Bible offense once again exploded and went on a 19-2 run and blew the game wide open. Lancaster Bible forced six turnovers during the scoring run and connected on four layups and two 3-pointers. Cataudella's three-point play capped the run as Lancaster Bible led 96-76 with 6:13 remaining. 

The Nittany Lions never threatened the lead again and Lancaster Bible would lead by as many as 21 before winning by 19.

By the Numbers: Lancaster Bible shot 50.7 percent (37-of-73) for the game, including 12-of-27 from beyond the arc...Penn St. Berks shot 45.6 percent (31-of-68) from the floor and was 12-of-28 from 3-point range...Lancaster Bible had three players with 20+ points, led by Herbie Brown's career-high 25 points on 10-of-17 shooting...Austin Brown finished with 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting, including 7-of-10 from 3-point range...Cataudella was the third player with 20 or more points as he poured in 21 points on 6-of-11 shooting a perfect 9-of-9 mark from the free throw line...Fifteen of Cataudella's points came in the second half and he also had nine rebounds...Jason Kuntzelman added 12 points to go with five rebounds and five assists, while Alex Whitt was the fifth player in double figures with 10 points and seven rebounds...Waples finished with 26 points and 10 assists for Penn St. Berks.

The Coach Says: "We re-examined a few things over the past week and re-emphasized our get-out and go offense, as well as creating turnovers and playing solid defense," Lancaster Bible Head Coach Zach Filzen said. "We played really well defensively in the second half and tonight was a great bounce back win for us."

On Cataudella's Play: "We wanted to get the ball into Brett in the second half," Filzen said. "He has done a phenomenal job this season and is turning into a beast down low for us. He played well tonight and has a bright future for us."

On Further Improvements: "We showed glimpses tonight of what we are capable of, we just need to do those things with more consistency," Filzen said. "We need to keep getting better in the half-court offense, but I thought we did a great job playing together tonight and it was fun to watch."

Information Hodge Podge: Lancaster Bible is now 11-5 all-time against Penn St. Berks...The Chargers have won eight straight games against the Nittany Lions and haven't lost since Feb. 15, 2013 (72-70)...Lancaster Bible is 41-6 at Horst Athletic Center since the beginning of the 2013-14 season...Austin Brown's 23 points were a career-high, as were Cataudella's 21 points...The Chargers had 24 assists, the second-highest total in a game this season (25 at Penn College)...The 12 3-pointers matched a season-high (Franklin & Marshall)...The Chargers scored 100 points or more for the second time this season...Lancaster Bible has shot 50 percent or better from the floor three times this year...Brown's seven 3-pointers are tied for the second-most in program history...He joins Jonah Lathbury, Tim Feliciano and Bryce Williams as players who have knocked down seven 3's in a game...Matt Lynskey, Albert Suniga and Naheer Mirza hold the program-record of eight in a game.

Up Next: Lancaster Bible will wrap-up the first semester next Friday as the Chargers host Messiah at 6 p.m.