Beaver hangs on and pulls off overtime win against Greater Allegheny

MCKEESPORT, Pa. – The Penn State Beaver men's basketball team played a close bout against PSUAC rival Penn State Greater Allegheny Saturday afternoon and dug deep to pull away with a 1-point overtime road victory (63-62).

Junior guard Keon Butler (Annapolis/Star Severn School) led the way for Beaver with a game-high 26 points, seven assists, four rebounds and three steals, followed by junior guard Sonny Martinez (Austin), who finished with 15 points, five rebounds, two assists and one steal.

1st half: Beaver came out strong to start the game, with sophomore forward/center Jeremy Redwine (Merced) drilling a jump shot followed by a three-pointer in a 37-second span, which helped to forge a 9-2 run. But Greater Allegheny hit back with 5 straight points to cut the margin to 9-7 and then tie the game 11-1 at the 12-minute mark. At 4:50, Beaver started to pull ahead after senior guard John Foster (Austin/Del Valle) and Martinez combined for back-to-back treys in under two minutes to put the Lions up by 9 (26-17). The Lions kept things rolling down the stretch, as Butler banked a layup at 2:44 to give Beaver a double-digit lead (28-17). However, Greater Allegheny outscored the Lions 7-0 to wrap the first half, with Beaver holding on to a 4-point lead at halftime (28-24).

2nd half: Greater Allegheny started closing in on Beaver and landed on the board first to start the second with a three-pointer to make it a 1-point game. But Butler and Martinez then combined for back-to-back treys to make it a two-possession game (34-30), however, the lead was short-lived as Greater Allegheny tied it up on a three-pointer at 14:23 (36-36). But the Lions caught fire again with a 12-2 run midway through the period to build an 8-point lead at 6:30. But Greater Allegheny caught up again on the next few possessions and get within 2 of Beaver's lead (48-46) and took the lead away after hitting a late trey at 2:19 (51-50). But Martinez answered back with a clutch trey of his own to go up 2 with less than two minutes to go (53-52). However, the Lions fouled a Greater Allegheny player to send them to the line and hit two free throws and tie the game at 53-53. In the final minute of the game, the teams traded three-pointers to tie at 56-56 and send the game into overtime.

OT: The teams went back-and-forth in overtime, keeping the game within one possession. However, with only seven seconds to go and Beaver down by 1, Foster made the game-winning layup to earn a 63-62 victory for the Lions.

Inside the Box: Beaver shot 41.1 percent from the field, connecting on 23-56 shots, 33.3 percent from 3-point range on 9-27 shots and 66.7 percent from the free-throw line, hitting 8-12 from the charity stripe.

The Lions improve to 12-11 overall and 9-8 in the PSUAC standings. The Lions will be back for more PSUAC conference action at home this Tuesday, Feb. 18, where they will host Penn State Shenango. Tipoff is at 7 p.m.