READING, Pa. – The Albright Lions men's basketball team held on a for a thrilling 83-78 win over Penn State Berks in their season opener on Monday night at the Bollman Center in non-conference action.
 
With the win, the Lions win their fourth-straight season opening game over Penn State Berks. Meanwhile, the Nittany Lions fall to 0-2 overall on the season after playing their season opener on Saturday at Delaware Valley.
 
Junior Samuel Majekodunmi led the Lions with a game-high 21 points behind 18 coming in the second half. Majekodunmi went 7-for-8 from the free throw line, while adding four rebounds and two assists. Classmate Isaiah Harris recorded 18 points behind going 7-of-8 from the field, and adding six rebounds. Junior Sidney Brown also had a big second half as he scored 12 of his 14 points in the final 20 minutes, and recorded four assists plus four steals. Senior DeLascio Dancy pulled down a career-high 14 rebounds and dished out four assists.
 
Junior Troy Smoot opened the game with a three-pointer for the Lions as they made their first four field goals to take an early 10-5 lead at the 16:31-mark of the first half. Albright completed a 13-2 run on a jumper from Brown to go up 18-7 at the 12:32-mark, their largest lead of the half. The Nittany Lions used a quick 5-1 burst to get within 19-12, but Albright came back to go up double-digits again at 24-14 with 10:05 left in the first half. However, the Nittany Lions mounted a 12-1 run in just over a two minute span to take their first lead of the game at 26-25 at the 7:52-mark of the first half. With Albright struggling from the field, the Nittany Lions continued to surge as they went up 31-26 at the 6:07-mark to complete the 17-2 run. Dancy ended a 4:56 drought without an Albright field goal at the 5:42-mark of the first half on a layup. The bucket started a 7-0 run for the Lions that helped Albright gain the lead back at 33-31 with just over four minutes left in the first half. However, the resilient Nittany Lions closed the half on a 6-1 advantage to go up 37-34 at halftime. Albright had 12 turnovers in the first half.
 
Berks started the second half with a jumper to take a 39-34 lead, but Albright began to heat up in the second half as they used a 14-3 run to take a 48-42 lead at the 14:46-mark of the second half. The run was fueled by back-to-back three-pointers from Brown that helped put the Lions in front again. Albright went up seven points at 53-46 with 12:49 left in the second half, but Berks again battled back with seven-straight points in just over a minute to tie the game at 53. The Lions went on a 10-2 run to take a 63-55 lead at the 9:34-mark of the second half, and maintained the lead out to 65-57 with 8:59 left in regulation. Albright took its largest lead of the half at 69-60 following a layup from Majekodunmi at the 6:46-mark, but the Nittany Lions refused to go away as they scored six-straight points to make it a 69-66 game at the 5:28-mark. A free throw plus three-pointer from Majekodunmi put the Lions back up seven at 73-66 with 4:52 left in the half until Berks cut back into the lead again with five-straight points to make it 73-71. Albright went back up four points at 77-73 with 2:06 left in the second half, but a foul on a three-pointer brought the Nittany Lions back within one point at 77-76. Majekodunmi responded with a clutch three-pointer off the glass to make it 80-76 with 1:14 left, but the Nittany Lions quickly responded with a layup to make it 80-78 just nine seconds later. Berks failed to capitalize on an Albright turnover with a missed free throw on a one-and-one. Smoot split a pair of free throws to leave Albright up 81-78 with 30 seconds left, and the Lions would survive a pair of Berks three-point attempts to hold on for the win.
 
The Lions shot 47.3 percent (26-of-55) from the field after shooting 53.6 percent in the second half. Albright went 8-of-20 (40%) from beyond the arc after shooting just 1-of-7 in the first half, and went just 23-of-40 (57.5%) from the free throw stripe Albright scored 18 points off 15 Berks turnovers. Meanwhile, the Nittany Lions shot 38.6 percent (27-of-70) from the field, and 30% (9-of-30) from the three-point line. Berks shot 15-of-19 (78.9%) from the charity stripe, and received 37 points from its bench. Anthony McFall led the Nittany Lions with a team-high 18 points and added six rebounds before fouling out in the final 30 seconds. Jared Houck added 14 points off the bench, while Shakim Davis grabbed 10 rebounds.
 
Albright will return to action on Friday, November 15^th as they will travel to face Cabrini in the Stockton Tip-Off Tournament at 8 p.m.