The Lancaster Bible College men's basketball team won its third straight game on Saturday afternoon, defeating Penn St. Berks, 79-74 at Horst Athletic Center. The Chargers are now 4-1 overall and 2-0 in North Eastern Athletic Conference play, while Penn St. Berks is now 0-8 overall and 0-2 in conference action.

How it Happened: Lancaster Bible and Penn St. Berks began the game on a feverish pace, with the Chargers tying the game at 12-12 after a reverse slam from Christo Majok, just 4:39 into the game. The teams continued to trade baskets over the next few minutes, but the Chargers were able to get some breathing room after back-to-back buckets from Majok and senior Bill Livezey made it 26-20 in favor of Lancaster Bible.

Penn St. Berks answered with an 8-0 run over the next five minutes however, taking a 28-26 lead, before two free throws from Majok knotted the game at 28-28 with 2:38 remaining in the half. Lancaster Bible scored 10 of the final 15 points of the half, the final three coming from senior Austin Brown, to grab a 38-33 advantage at halftime.

The Nittany Lions scored five straight points to open the second half to tie the game at 38-38, but two 3-pointers from Austin Brown sandwiched around a layup from Majok, gave the Chargers a 46-38 lead with 17:23 remaining. Brown continued his hot shooting and knocked down his third triple in the opening 3:35 to give Lancaster Bible a 49-41 lead, but Penn St. Berks battled back again, and eventually tied the game at 50-50 on a 3-pointer from Matt Seip. 

A thunderous dunk by junior Quentin Davis ignited an 8-0 run for the Chargers over the next 2:30 that gave them a 58-50 lead, and Davis stretched it to nine moments later when he converted one of two free throws to make it 64-55. Lancaster Bible maintained its lead over the next couple of minutes, though David DiMeo's 3-pointer with 3:08 to play cut the Chargers' lead to four, 71-67.

Davis was big again for the Chargers following the DiMeo 3-pointer, as he converted a three-point play and grew the lead back to seven with 2:48 remaining. Penn St. Berks cut its deficit to three on two different occasions, but could not get over the hump and two late free throws from senior Jalen Archer sealed the victory for Lancaster Bible.

By the Numbers: Lancaster Bible shot just 28-of-74 (37.8 percent) from the floor and 7-of-27 from beyond the arc...Penn St. Berks was 28-of-57 (49.1 percent) from the field and 14-of-27 from 3-point range...Each team had 39 rebounds, but Lancaster Bible held a 17-7 edge on the offensive glass and extended many of its possessions...Senior Herbie Brown was big for the Chargers, especially in the first half, as he had a team-high 18 points and seven rebounds...Austin Brown finished with 17 points, while Majok had 13 points, 11 rebounds, seven steals and five assists...Davis finished with 15 points and seven boards to go with three steals...Lancaster Bible had 19 steals and forced 25 turnovers...DiMeo had a game-high 22 points for Penn St. Berks.

The Coach Says: "It was good to get a win today, but we didn't play very well," Lancaster Bible Head Coach Zach Filzen said. "We weren't very disciplined defensively and chased the ball everywhere and didn't trap when we were supposed to. Offensively wasn't great either, as we just didn't have a lot of flow or movement. I think we played pretty well when they guarded us man-to-man, but we need to execute better against a team when they play zone on us."

Looking Ahead: "It's good to learn from a win and we will need to clean things up quickly with a big road game at Gallaudet in the middle of next week," Filzen said. "We've had some good and poor moments in our first five games, but it's a long journey and we are just beginning."

Information Hodge Podge: Lancaster Bible is now 12-6 all-time against Penn St. Berks...The Chargers and Nittany Lions split the season series a year ago, with each team winning on its home floor...Saturday marked the first time this season the Chargers have shot below 50 percent from the floor and won the game...Lancaster Bible is outscoring teams by 11.6 points per game this season.

Up Next: Lancaster Bible faces Gallaudet in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday at 5 p.m.