Beaver falls to Villa Maria in Holiday Tournament

Monaca, Pa - In their second game of the Holiday Tournament, Penn State Beaver would take on Villa Maria, looking to end up 2-0 in this tournament before the holiday break. However, Villa Maria would come into this matchup lookking to take advantage of a tired Beaver team, coming off of an overtime win from the night before with Bryant & Stratton.

The first half started off slow for both teams, but eventually it would be Villa Maria who would pull ahead in this game 10 minutes in and never looked back. Although Beaver played well for the first 10 minutes of the game, going back and forth with the lead, Villa Maria seemed to bring more energy than Beaver did and would use this to continually build on a lead that they wouldn't give up. Beaver kept it close enough to come back for much of the first half, never allowing more than a 15 point lead, but they couldn't seem to spark their offense to bring them back into it before the half, where Villa Maria would have a 33-22 lead.

The second half was all Villa Maria, as they seemed to come out firing on all cylinders while Beaver was still looking for that offensive spark to put them back into this game. While they played well defensively throughout the entire game, Beaver would eventually lead Villa Maria widen their lead as Beaver seemed to have no shot to come back in this one as the minutes ticked by. By the time the final buzzer rang, Beaver had fallen to Villa Maria by a final score of 82-55.

For Beaver, the star of the game had to be Junior guard Sonny Martinez, who had 19 points and 5 rebounds in Beaver's efforts tonight. In addition to Martinez's efforts, Sophmore forward/center Jeremy Redwine also had himself a quietly good game, recording a double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds. Altogether though, Beaver would only manage to 55 points in this one by shooting 31.7% from the field, showing that their offense lacked the spark that they needed to pull out a win in this one.

Beaver is now 6-6 on the year, while maintaining a 4-4 conference record. Beaver's next game will be after the holidays on January 9th at home against Kent State Tuscarawas. Game time is set for 7pm.