Lions Defense Dominant in Win over La Roche

ERIE, Pa. – The Penn State Behrend men's basketball team won their fifth straight game Saturday defeating La Roche, 57-30. The Lions (16-2, 10-1 AMCC) never trailed in the game and played tremendous defense forcing 19 turnovers and held La Roche (1-17, 1-10 AMCC) to 28.3 percent shooting from the floor.

Zane Hackett (Brookville, PA/Brookville) led Behrend in scoring for the fifth straight game finishing with a game-high 19 points. He also added four blocks.

The Lions struck first and jumped out to an early 9-0 advantage in the game's first four and a half minutes.  Connor McLaughlin (Ashtabula, OH/Edgewood) provided a spark of the bench draining a three pointer at the 9:37 mark in the first half that gave Behrend a 17-5 lead. The Lions would hold a double-digit advantage for the rest of the game.

Behrend dominated the first half holding La Roche to just 11 points. The Lions tenacious defense set up 21 points off of turnovers compared to just two for La Roche.

The leading rebounder in the AMCC, Wes Davic, (Grafton, OH/Midview) had another strong outing on the glass hauling in 12 rebounds, five of which were on the offensive end. Davic finished just shy of his fifth straight double-double closing out the game with eight points.

Malquan Pullium (Erie, PA/Strong Vincent) turned in a solid performance finishing the game with nine points, five rebounds, two steals and an assist.

With the win Behrend takes sole possession of first place in the AMCC with seven conference games left on the schedule. The Lions lace up next on Wednesday for a home match against Pitt-Bradford. The game starts at 8 p.m.