Beaver stuns Hazleton, 82-65

By: Matylda Zamudio

MONACA, Pa. – The Penn State Beaver men's basketball team defeated PSUAC rival Penn State Hazleton 82-65 on Friday night after holding the visitors to only 4 points in the last seven minutes of the game.

PSUAC Player of the Week, junior guard John Foster (Austin/Del Valle) led Beaver in scoring, earning a game-high 32 points and three rebounds followed by PSUAC Player of the Week sophomore forward Andrew Brady (Alliance/Marlington), who earned a double-double for Beaver with 23 points and 15 rebounds.

1st half: Hazleton scored a 3-pointer to open up the scoring, but Beaver fired one right back to tie the game at 3-3 two minutes in. At 15:29, momentum started to swing in Beaver's direction when Foster knock down a pair of back-to-back 3's to edge out a 5-point lead for Beaver (12-7). Beaver kept a two-score edge for the next few minutes, Hazleton managed to tie the game at the 3:39 mark (35-35). The teams were neck-to-neck, but Foster knocked down two free-throws to help Beaver take a 3-point lead before halftime (40-37).

2nd half: After the break, freshman guard Keon Butler (Annapolis/Star Severn School) scored 7-straight points to put the game at 47-40 less than three minutes into the half, but Hazleton cut Beaver's lead down to only 1 point shortly after (51-50). But Beaver took over the game with a 13-4 run in the final seven minutes to defeat Hazleton by a final score of 82-65.

Box Score Highlights: Beaver outshot Hazleton 58 percent to 48.2 from the field, 86.7 percent to 50 percent from the line, hitting 13-15 shots from the charity stripe and 64.7 percent to 30 percent from 3-point range. Beaver outrebounded Hazleton 29-23 and racked up nine more assists (22-13). Beaver also outscored Hazleton 13-4 second-chance points.

With today's win against Hazleton, Beaver sits at a 9-6 record in the conference standings and improve to a 13-8 overall season record.

Beaver will return to action to face Penn State Greater Schuylkill on Saturday, Feb. 9, to play in their fourth of four PSUAC matches scheduled for this week. The game is slated for 3 p.m.