Men’s Basketball Thump Penn State DuBois in Friday Night Showdown

By: Frank Maira, Assistant Director of Athletics/Sports Information Director

MONT ALTO, Pa. – The Penn State Mont Alto men's basketball were nearly unstoppable in the first half building a 34-point lead at halftime and cruised in the second half to a 102-74 win over PSU DuBois on Friday. Mont Alto won it's ninth-straight closing out the month of December with a perfect record and were ranked fourth in the most recent USCAA Division II National Coaches Poll.

Mont Alto (10-2, 8-0 PSUAC) jumped out to an early 5-0 lead when JR Powe (Frederick, Md / Thomas Johnson) sunk a transition 3-pointer. The freshman forward had another outstanding game finishing with a career-high 33 points on 13-of-20 shooting from the field. He grabbed his third double-double of the season with 15 rebounds.

DuBois initially had an answer attacking the perimeter and cut the deficit to 10-7 before PSUMA went on a 8-0 run to force a visitors timeout. Things didn't go much better for PSU DuBois out of the break as Mont Alto went up 32-14 after Derron Snider (Brandywine, Md. / Oxon Hill) sunk a trey with just under eight minutes left in the half. PSUMA stretched its lead to 34 at the halftime break by grabbing all the  momentum using a combination of pressure defense and long range shooting. The Nittany Lions connected on 9-of-17 shots from downtown in the first half and forced 12 turnovers.

Penn State DuBois (5-6, 2-5 PSUAC) rattled off eight-straight points to make it 69-39 after Cameron Williams (Inwood, W.Va. / Musselman) opened the half with a backdoor layup. They played much better in the second half, but Mont Alto's damage within the first half was too much to overcome. Mont Alto led 85-57 with 7:36 and were able to get many of their rotational pieces on the bench solid minutes down the stretch.

Mont Alto finished the game shooting a 49.4% clip from field goal range and were 10-of-20 from downtown. Powe scored 33 points, while Quintyn Flemister (Harrisburg, Pa. / Harrisburg) netted 22 points and Cameron Williams (Inwood, W.Va. / Musselman) nearly recorded his first collegiate double-double with 10 points and eight rebounds. Russell Gariepy finished as Dubois's leading scorer pouring in 16 points.

Mont Alto won't return to action again until after the holiday break when it takes on Williamson College of the Trades in a road game on January 8. PSUMA won 64-51 at the Benchoff Tournament and will look for another victory with tip-off slated for 7 p.m.