The Lancaster Bible College men's basketball team kept its perfect conference record alive on Tuesday night, as the Chargers returned to conference action with a 78-71 victory over Gallaudet at Horst Athletic Center. The Chargers are now 9-4 this season and 5-0 in North Eastern Athletic Conference play, while the Bison fell to 2-10 overall and 2-3 in NEAC play.

How it Happened: Lancaster Bible opened the game on a 8-0 run, as senior Herbie Brown scored the first five points of the game and fellow senior Bill Livezey capped the run with a 3-pointer. Gallaudet responded with eight of the next 10 points, as a 3-pointer from Jawaun Jackson brought the Bison to within two, 10-8 with 13:55 to play in the opening half.

The Bison would eventually take a 13-12 lead, but Lancaster Bible restored its lead after a 6-0 run and led 18-13 after a layup from junior Alex Whitt with 9:38 remaining. Gallaudet re-took the lead, 20-18 after a 7-0 run and eventually led 23-20 after a 3-pointer from Noah Valencia. Senior Austin Brown answered with a 3-pointer of his own for the Chargers and junior Christo Majok followed with a thunderous dunk, and the Chargers never trailed again.

Sophomore Luke Beers followed Majok's dunk with another 3-pointer and a layup from Herbie Brown put the Chargers in front, 30-23 with 4:27 to play in the opening half. Lancaster Bible would eventually lead 36-30 after 20 minutes of play, though they shot just 13-of-35 from the floor in the opening half.

Gallaudet cut its deficit to four, 36-32 in the opening 15 seconds of the second half, but a 3-pointer from Austin Brown and layup from senior Jalen Archer gave the Chargers a 41-32 lead less than a minute later and the Chargers were off and running. Lancaster Bible took its biggest lead of the game with 15:47 to play after (stop me if you've read this before) another 3-pointer from Austin Brown. 

The Chargers maintained their lead throughout the half, though Gallaudet hung around, and after a 3-pointer from Kelly Preston, trailed just 62-59 with 6:06 to play. Austin Brown answered with his fifth and final 3-pointer just 27 seconds later, but again, Gallaudet battled and trailed 68-65 with 3:55 left in regulation. 

Back-to-back layups from Herbie Brown and junior Quentin Davis restored the Chargers' lead to seven with 2:47 remaining and the lead never shrunk below five the rest of the way, as Davis put the exclamation point on the game with a dunk with 15 seconds to play.

By the Numbers: Lancaster Bible shot 28-of-63 (44.4 percent) from the floor and 9-of-31 from 3-point range...The Bison shot 27-of-48 (56.3 percent) from the field and 9-of-16 from beyond the arc...Lancaster Bible held a 31-26 edge in rebounds, including a 17-5 advantage on the offensive glass...Herbie Brown finished with a team-high 21 points on 8-of-12 shooting for the Chargers, and also added seven rebounds, five assists and four steals...Austin Brown had 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting, including 5-of-9 from distance...Davis was the other Lancaster Bible player in double figures with 13 points, seven boards and two assists...Junior Christo Majok added seven points, eight rebounds and eight steals...Whitt and Beers finished with five points each and Livezey chipped in with six points and three assists...Valencia had a game-high 25 points for the Bison.

The Coach Says: "I'm not thrilled with the way we played, but I liked the ball movement we had on the offensive end, and even though we missed some open looks, we were in position for offensive rebounds all night long and were able to grab 17," Lancaster Bible Head Coach Zach Filzen said. "Austin had a big second half for us and knocked down some big shots."

On the team's balance: "One of our biggest strengths is our depth and tonight we got a chance to see that different guys can go off and put together solid nights," Filzen said. "We had seven guys score five or more points, and not only that, we made the extra pass and found open guys. We got close to our goal of 20 assists with 19 tonight, and when we distribute the ball like that, we are tough to beat."

Information Hodge Podge: Lancaster Bible and Gallaudet are now tied 8-8 in the all-time series, as the Chargers took both games from the Bison this season...The Chargers defeated Gallaudet, 74-70 in Washington, D.C. on Dec. 5 of this season...The Chargers got 23 points from their bench and outscored Gallaudet, 22-2 in second chance points...The Charger have alternated wins and losses for the past seven games...The victory was the 50th in the coaching career of Lancaster Bible Head Coach Zach Filzen.

Up Next: Crossover play begins in the NEAC this weekend, as the Chargers host Penn College on Saturday at 1 p.m. and Keuka on Sunday at 12 p.m.