The Lancaster Bible College men's basketball team rebounded from a tough weekend on Tuesday night as the Chargers defeated St. Elizabeth, 95-65 at Horst Athletic Center. The victory improves the Chargers to 8-10 overall this season and 8-5 in North Eastern Athletic Conference play, while the Eagles dropped to 7-12 overall and 6-9 in conference play.

How it Happened: The game began slowly for the Chargers as they scored just three points in the first five minutes, but Lancaster Bible picked up the pace over the next five minutes and used a 14-0 run to turn a 9-3 deficit into a 17-9 lead with 10:03 to play. Sophomore Quentin Davis had five points during the scoring run as five different players contributed to the Chargers scoring outburst.

St. Elizabeth cut the deficit to five a minute later, but a layup from freshman Brett Cataudella, followed by a 3-pointer from fellow freshman Luke Beers, helped the Chargers build a 10-point lead for the first time of the evening. The Eagles would not go away though and a quick 7-0 run had them back in the game at 28-25, but Beers and Cataudella were at it again and helped the Chargers maintain their lead. Beers knocked down another 3-pointer and Cataudella was dominant inside as the Chargers maintained their lead and then extended it just before half as Cataudella drained a rare 3-pointer with 49 seconds left. 

Eagles' freshman and leading scorer Jason Saldiveri did everything he could in the opening minutes of the second half to get St. Elizabeth back into the game as he scored 13 points over the first 4:22 of the half and though Lancaster Bible's defense bent, it did not break, and the Chargers withstood the onslaught and led by seven, 52-45, with 15:27 remaining.

A 10-2 Lancaster Bible scoring run followed which sophomore Alex Whitt capped with a three-point play to put the Chargers ahead, 62-47. The Chargers maintained their lead and though St. Elizabeth would cut its deficit to 13 at one point, Lancaster Bible began to grow its lead and outscored the Eagles, 26-9 over the final 6:18 of the game. Cataudella had six more points during the scoring run, as did Bryce Reed, who came off the bench and went 2-for-2 from both the field and the free throw line. 

By the Numbers: Lancaster Bible shot 51.4 percent (38-of-74) from the field, including 9-of-22 (40.9 percent) from 3-point range...St. Elizabeth shot 36.2 percent (25-of-69) from the floor and 7-of-21 from beyond the arc...Cataudella finished with a career-high 23 points on 10-of-16 shooting and added seven rebounds...Whitt added 12 points, three rebounds and three assists, while Herbie Brown also had 12 points and chipped in with 11 rebounds...Sophomore Jason Kuntzelman had 11 points and five assists as he was 4-of-7 from the floor...Marlon Hart had a team-high 21 points for the Eagles.

The Coach Says: "We got into a good rhythm on the offensive end, had good ball movement and did a great job finding the open man," Lancaster Bible Head Coach Zach Filzen said. "We executed well on both ends of the floor and I thought our attention to detail was excellent. We played as a unit on the defensive end and I thought we did well against their very good guards for large stretches of the game. Saldiveri had 18 points, but 13 of them came in a four-minute span, and I think we did well getting into gaps making it tough on him."

On keeping the momentum from Tuesday's game: "We learned a hard lesson last week that if you don't practice well, you don't play well in games," Filzen said. "I thought we had a great practice on Monday and that translated to this evening. I think if we can keep that mindset through the rest of the season, we can find ourselves in good places. We've always said we wanted to play our best basketball in late January and through February and I still believe that is attainable."

Information Hodge Podge: Lancaster Bible is now 2-0 all-time against St. Elizabeth...In the first meeting between these two teams, the Eagles and Chargers combined for 46 fouls and 57 free throw attempts...On Tuesday, the teams had just 27 combined fouls and 23 free throw attempts...The Chargers outscored the Eagles, 50-24 in the paint...Lancaster Bible's bench outscored St. Elizabeth's bench, 43-16...Tuesday marked the first time the Chargers shot at least 40 percent from 3-point range since Jan. 14 at Penn St. Abington...The 30-point victory is the largest of the season and the +19 rebounding edge (46-27) is the second-largest margin of the year.

Up Next: Lancaster Bible is back on the road this weekend as the Chargers play Gallaudet on Saturday and Wilson on Sunday...Both games are set for 2 p.m.