Lions Breeze Past La Roche, 57-40: DeLisio Hits 1,000 Points

ERIE, Pa. - Nick DeLisio (Aliquippa, PA/Central Valley) scored 21 points, added six assists and swiped three steals as the Penn State Behrend men's basketball team defeated La Roche 57-40 Saturday afternoon.

The Lions (5-0, 2-0 AMCC) held La Roche (1-5, 1-1 AMCC) to only 40 points on 27.9 percent shooting. In addition to scoring a game-high 21 points, DeLisio also reached the 1,000-point mark for his career.

Thanks in part to great team defense, Behrend held a double-digit lead the entire second half. DeLisio scored 13 points in the second frame and shot 46 percent in the game including 3-for-6 from the behind the arc. At the 12:51 mark in the second half, DeLisio drained a three-pointer to increase Behrend's lead to 41-27. After a Keith Wallace (Erie, PA/Central Tech) layup, DeLisio added another three-pointer to give the Lions a 16-point advantage with 11:20 remaining. La Roche could never quite put together a comeback and the Lions went on to win the game by 17 points.

Behrend built a 28-16 lead at the half thanks to a late 10-0 spurt that began with a Jordan Grabowski (Pittsburgh, PA/Upper St. Clair) triple with just over three minutes to play until the break. The Lions scored 17 points off of 14 forced turnovers and only turned the ball over nine times themselves.

Three Behrend players scored in double figures including DeLisio. Wallace finished with 10 points four assists and three rebounds while Malquan Pullium (Erie, PA/Strong Vincent ) chipped in 10 points and four rebounds.

The Lions are off to a hot start to the season and have won their first five games for the first time since the 2010-11 season. Next up for Behrend is a non-conference match-up at Fredonia Wednesday at 8 p.m.