The Lancaster Bible College men's basketball team picked up their eighth straight win on the road over the Penn College Wildcats by a score of 89-77 on Wednesday night. The Chargers improve to 15-7 overall and 12-1 in United East play, while the Wildcats drop to 9-13 overall and 4-9 in conference games.

How it Happened: Graduate student Jordan Shewbridge kicked off the scoring with a 3-pointer, then Ethan Beachy made a layup to give LBC and early 5-0 lead. Penn College responded quickly by taking a 9-7 lead just four minutes into the contest. Grant Sareyka and Gavin Barrett each hit 3-pointers on opposite sides of the court to make the score 12-10. About six minutes in, Andrew Zentner banked in two jump shots to pull the Chargers ahead by one. Seth Beers later found Shewbridge for a 3-pointer to give LBC a four-point lead. Beers stepped into a 3-point make with about seven and a half to go to extend the lead to six points, then Gavin Barrett drove to the hoop and finished a layup to help close the gap to four. Shewbridge drew a foul on a 3-point attempt and sunk all three shots from the line to increase the lead to 29-24. LBC closed the half strong on an 8-2 run featuring layups from Sareyka and Beachy, helping the Chargers grab a double-digit lead at halftime, 37-26.
 
Lancaster Bible began the second half with back-to-back layups from Adam Stoltzfus and Shewbridge to extend the lead to 15. The teams traded points over the next few minutes, with Zentner making a layup to put LBC up by 16. Shewbridge stayed hot with another bucket, bringing him to 19 on the night and the lead to 15 points. He came back down the floor and finished through contact for a three-point play to get him to 22 points. Stoltzfus connected down low to keep the LBC lead at 14 points as the Wildcats tried to keep pace with a dynamic Chargers offense. A little later, Zentner found Sareyka twice in a row for 3-pointers to give LBC their largest lead of the game at 19 points. Penn College tried to climb back into the game, cutting the lead to as little as 11, but Stoltzfus halted the run with a layup. Everyone was involved in the Chargers' scoring in the second half with Zentner, Stoltzfus, and Beachy working down low to keep LBC on top by a wide margin. The Chargers closed out the win by a score of 89-77 and moved to an impressive 12-1 conference record.


By the Numbers

• The Chargers shot 46.4% (32-69) from the floor and 22.6% (7-31) from 3-point range, going 18-27 (66.7%) from the free throw line.
• The Wildcats shot 39.0% (30-77) for the game and 23.5% (4-17) on 3-pointers, shooting 61.9% (13-21) from the charity stripe.
• Lancaster Bible outrebounded Penn College 48-39 and had more assists (19-13), while the Wildcats had more second chance points (14-8) and points in the paint (50-42).
• Jordan Shewbridge led all scorers with 24 points and shot a perfect 8-8 from the charity stripe.
• Grant Sareyka finished with 20 points and knocked down three 3-pointers.
• Andrew Zentner and Adam Stoltzfus each posted double-doubles; Zentner had 17 points and 13 rebounds while Stoltzfus had 11 points and 12 boards.

 
Information to Know: The Chargers remain undefeated against Penn College, moving to 19-0 all-time against the Wildcats. Lancaster Bible took down Penn College earlier this season at home by a score of 88-66 on December 3. Shewbridge now has nine games this season with 20+ points and has scored 10+ points in 18 of his 21 games in 2022-23. Shewbridge also leads the United East Conference this season in free throw percentage at 86.7%. Stoltzfus recorded his 11^th double-double of the season tonight, putting him in the top-30 in NCAA Division III in that category. Zentner entered tonight's game ranked 27^th in NCAA Division III with 46 total blocks, and he tied his season-high with five blocks against the Wildcats. The Chargers have the opportunity to clinch the United East regular season title and hosting rights for the United East Championship on February 24th and 25th with a win on Saturday afternoon.

Up Next: The men's basketball team will be back in the Horst Athletic Center on Saturday, February 11^th at 3:00 p.m. as they host St. Mary's (Md.).