Beaver Drops Third Straight Against Penn State Lehigh Valley

By: Evan Pinchot

Monaca, Pa -- The Penn State Beaver men's basketball team played host to Penn State Lehigh Valley, looking to end their two game losing streak with a good conference win. The team comes into this game off of a tough overtime loss against Penn State Brandywine, in which the team played really well but still came up just short. With a win today, Beaver would help to keep their playoff hopes alive as they are currently at 4-4 in conference play.

Beaver started this game out rolling right off the bat, jumping out to an early lead over Lehigh Valley. For the first ten minutes of the half, Beaver moved the ball really well as they quickly built up a good double digit lead. At about the halfway point of first half, Lehigh began to come back as they started to take control of the pace of the game. Beaver began to play sloppy, and as the half came to a close Lehigh had cut Beaver's lead down to 8 as they went into the half with a score of 42-34.

The second half of play was a much different story for Beaver, as they came out very flat and unfocused. It wasn't until the 12 minute mark when Beaver's Freshman guard, Dimetres Moore (Mesa, Az / Skyline), made a three for the team's first points of the half. With ten minutes left to play in the game, Lehigh had managed to comeback and build a 10 point lead over a struggling Beaver offense. As time ticked down, Beaver finally managed to bounce back and put up a fight as they pulled the game to within three points with 3 minutes left to play. However, Beaver's late game push was not enough and the team seemed to fall apart in the last 2 minutes, falling to Lehigh Valley by a final score of 79-71.

After their disappointing loss to Lehigh Valley, Beaver now holds an 8-10 conference record with a 4-5 record in conference play. The team was led in their loss by the efforts of Freshman Dimetres Moore, who tallied a double-double with a team high 21 points and 11 rebounds, and Freshman Dominique Stevenson (Rochester, NY / Ithica) who had 20 points, 9 rebounds and 4 assists. The team will look to snap their three-game-skid at home on Tuesday, January 24, against Penn State New Kensington. Game time is set for 8 pm.