Beaver Battles Back To Defeat Penn State Fayette

By: Evan Pinchot

Monaca, Pa -- The Penn State Beaver men's basketball team faced off against Penn State Fayette, battling for a tough win over Fayette 76-74.

Coming into this game, the Penn State Beaver basketball team had won two games in a row and looked to keep their momentum going against a Fayette team that has always given Beaver problems. While Beaver comes into this game with a better record than Fayette, 5-5 overall, the two teams are neck-and-neck in conference play, making this a very important game for both sides.

The game started off as a back and forth battle between two teams determined to take home this win. Fayette was the first team to jump ahead in this one, but for the rest of the first half the two teams would go on trading the lead back and forth. Neither team could seem to get any momentum going as this game was on of the sloppiest Beaver has played all year, committing 13 fouls in the first half alone. However, Fayette was playing just as sloppy, and with all of these stoppages neither team was able to maintain any momentum or any lead, setting the score at 39-32 Fayette at the half.

The second half of play was more of the same for both teams at first. While Fayette was able to maintain their lead for the first 16 minutes of the second half, Beaver was quietly making a comeback as they kept pace with Fayette. It wasn't until their were 4 minutes left in the half when Beaver took the lead back from Fayette, and from there the team played its best defense all year to keep it. Beaver ended up winning this close game, edging out Fayette by a final score of 76-74 in the final minute of play.

Beaver played fantastic tonight, securing themselves a big win in conference play. The team now sits at 6-5 overall on the year, while improving their conference record to 3-2. The team has played well as of late, winning their last 3 games and continually improving from game to game. The team was lead in this game by Freshman Dominique Stevenson (Rochester, NY / Ithaca), who posted a team high 19 points while hauling in 6 rebounds. The team will play next on Saturday, December 17, at home against Apprentice. Game time is set for 7 pm.