Box Score
The Albright College men's basketball team opened up a big second half lead and held off a late surge, defeating Penn State- Berks 80-71 on Saturday in the Bollman Center.
Senior
Dave Singleton continues to flirt with a triple-double, finishing with 17 points, 10 rebounds and six assists in 30 minutes of action. He also had three steals; all four totals were game-highs.
Junior
Pedro Perez sank 6-of-10 shots for 13 points, while adding eight rebounds. Classmates
Sam Marrella (14 points) and
Kyle Jordan (six points, nine rebounds) also contributed.
Singleton opened the contest with a pair of jumpers, and Perez's putback had the Lions on top 6-5 following a three-pointer from Berks'
Jeff Schmidt.
Senior
Zach Benjamin completed a nice pick-and-roll with Singleton, and
Cornell Mickens converted a hard lefty drive to put Albright ahead 14-9.
Reuel Moore's trey gave the Lions their first double-digit advantage, 19-9.
After a big swat by freshman center
Calvert Gantz on
Dameon Nixon's drive, Marrella sank a three-pointer to again put Albright up by ten points. Perez' fall-away corner bucket made it 30-19, and Albright stretched the gap to 36-19 after freshman
Andre Marshall fed Benjamin with a no-look pass and then converted a put-back on the break.
Early in the second half Jordan chased down Perez' missed three and gave the junior another chance, which Perez sank for a 47-33 lead. Marrella's lay-up soon gave Albright a 20-point lead at 55-35.
Berks tried to chip-away, getting to within 11 points on a great pass from
Mike Porter to Nixon. Gantz responded with an alley-oop slam from Perez.
The Nittany Lions kept coming however, cutting the gap to 10 on Porter's three, and then to 73-65 after Schmidt followed an Albright turnover with a basket.
Nixon's fast break lay-in made it 75-69 Albright with just over two minutes to play. Benjamin answered with a key put-back after the Lions' initial attempt bounced off the rim.
Schmidt had 17 points and seven rebounds for Penn State-Berks, while
Tom Smith had 11 points and nine boards. Also in double-figures were Nixon (11) and
Connor Hough (10).
Albright improves to 4-0 heading into its Commonwealth Conference season opener, Wednesday night at Arcadia.
