Lions snag first conference win against Penn State New Kensington

NEW KENSINGTON, Pa.–-The Penn State Beaver men's basketball team against PSUAC rivals Penn State New Kensington during a road PSUAC conference bout on Tuesday night.

Sophomore forward/center Jeremy Redwine (Merced) led the way for Beaver, recording his first double-double of the season with 20 points, 13 rebounds, three assists and three steals. Junior guard Keon Butler (Annapolis/Star Severn School) followed right behind with 17 points, four rebounds, three assists, two steals and one block.

Senior guard John Foster (Austin/Del Valle) finished with 15 points, nine rebounds, two assists, two steals and one block, followed by junior guard Sonny Martinez (Austin), who contributed 10 points, two assists and one block.

1st half: The teams went back and forth in the opening minutes of the game. At 16:33, Beaver went up 4 on after Butler made a free-throw on a foul by New Kensington that added-on to his scored layup (6-3). Then a minute later, sophomore guard Jaime Lara (Phoenix/Bioscience) got the defensive board and found Redwine for a layup, which prompted a 14-0 run by the Lions to take a 16-point lead over New Kensington (21-5) with less than nine minutes to go in the first. Beaver controlled the tempo for the remainder of the first as Redwine added 8 of another 13 points by the Lions. Beaver led 34-20 at halftime

2nd half: The Lions built their largest lead of 19 points at the 16:23 minute-mark, Redwine forced a turnover got the ball back for Beaver, with Foster finding Martinez for a shot from downtown to bring the lead to 46-27. The Lions never gave up their double-digit lead to bring down New Kensington, 64-51.

Box Score Highlights: Beaver outshot New Kensington 53.2 to 37.5 percent from the field and 40 to 24 points in the paint. Beaver also shot 90.9 percent on 10-11 from the charity stripe. The bench also put up 19 points to New Kensington's 1 point.

With today's win against New Kensington, Beaver improves to a 1-1 overall record and 1-0 in the PSUAC-West.

The Lions return to action on Friday, Nov. 11, where they will host Penn State Scranton for the team's season home opener. The game is slated for 8 p.m.