The Lancaster Bible College men's basketball team picked an important victory, its third in four games, on Wednesday night as the Chargers defeated Penn St. Abington, 65-62 at Horst Athletic Center. The Chargers are now 10-11 overall and 10-6 in North Eastern Athletic Conference play, while the Nittany Lions dropped to 8-12, 7-8 NEAC. The victory gives Lancaster Bible some breathing room in the NEAC South Division as the Chargers have a 2 1/2 game lead on both Bryn Athyn and Penn St. Abington who are tied for third place. The Chargers have four games remaining, while the Lions and Nittany Lions each have five games left.

How it Happened: The first half of Wednesday's game will go on neither team's season highlight film as the teams combined for just 49 points and shot a combined 19-of-66. Lancaster Bible led 7-2 after a 3-pointer from sophomore Jason Kuntzelman 3:53 into the contest and Penn St. Abington had just one field goal through the first 5:30 of the game. The Chargers did very little during that time span as well and Don Sloan's 3-pointer with 14:19 left tied the game at 7-7. 

The teams traded baskets over the next three minutes and then went scoreless over the next four as Lancaster Bible took a 15-12 lead on junior Herbie Brown's jumper with 7:34 remaining in the half. Lancaster Bible sophomore Quentin Davis was one of the lone players to have a good first half as he had bucks on back-to-back possessions to give the Chargers a 23-19 lead with 4:02 remaining. The Chargers led by six, 25-19 after a layup from Herbie Brown, but a layup from Lamar Moore and three free throws from Sloan cut the Chargers' lead to just one at halftime, 25-24.

The second half was better for both teams and it was the Chargers who got things going early as freshman Luke Beers knocked down one of his three 3-pointers 2:52 into half to give Lancaster Bible a 35-29 lead. Two free throws from Beers and another layup from Davis gave Lancaster Bible its first double digit lead of the game with 15:33 to play, but a 9-0 run by Abington over the next four minutes made it a one-point game again with 11:30 to play. 

Sophomore Austin Brown drained one of his two 3-pointers to restore Lancaster Bible's four-point lead and minutes later, Beers hit another triple to give the Chargers a 47-40 advantage. The lead stayed about the same for the next few minutes, but a layup from Kenny Bey-Brown cut the Nittany Lions' deficit to two, 59-57, with 3:04 to play.

Beers hit two more free throws, as did Herbie Brown a minute later, to give the Chargers a 63-57 lead with 2:21 remaining. A 3-pointer from John Ryan and a layup from Vincent Luciano with eight seconds left made it a one-point game, 63-62, but Austin Brown hit two free throws with six seconds remaining and Penn St. Abington's last second shot was no good, giving the Chargers their third win in four tries.

By the Numbers: Lancaster Bible shot 39.3 percent (24-of-61) from the floor, including 6-of-24 from 3-point range...Penn St. Abington shot 34.4 percent (21-of-61) from the field and 7-of-26 from beyond the arc...Herbie Brown led the Chargers with 18 points, nine rebounds and five assists...Beers finished with 13 points and four boards...Davis had 12 points and eight rebounds...Freshman Brett Cataudella was the fourth player in double figures with 10 points and six rebounds...Austin Brown finished with nine points, six boards and three assists...Austin Slawter had 21 points to lead Penn St. Abington.

The Coach Says: "We've struggled to win close games all season long, so it's nice to win not only a close game, but an important game and a game where we had to grind it out the entire time," Lancaster Bible Head Coach Zach Filzen said. "I thought we moved the ball better in the second half and finally hit some shots. Our defense was good in the first half, but we need to adjust some things offensively and we were able to get some better looks in the second half."

Information Hodge Podge: Lancaster Bible is now 9-5 all-time against Penn St. Abington...The Chargers have won eight straight now against the Nittany Lions...Lancaster Bible is 5-4 at home this season...The Chargers continue to hit the glass well as Lancaster Bible held a 47-30 rebounding edge on Wednesday and how have 43 or more rebounds in 10 of its past 12 games.

Up Next: Lancaster Bible heads north on Route 222 on Saturday to face Penn St. Berks in Reading, Pa...Tip-off is set for 3 p.m.