Men’s Basketball Clinch PSUAC West Division with Win

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

LEMONT FURNACE, Pa. – The Penn State Mont Alto men's basketball team returned to action on Saturday as part of a back-to-back weekend and came out winners over PSU Fayette by a 51-47 score. With the win, Mont Alto clinched the No. 1 seed in the PSUAC West for the conference tournament later this month.

Inside the Box Score

• Mont Alto shot 29.9% from the field to improve to 18-4 overall and 13-2 within the PSUAC. They had three different student-athletes finish in double figures with John Teague (Hagerstown, Md. / North Hagerstown) posting a 13 point and 12 rebound performance.
• Marcus Roper (Charles Town, W. Va. / Jefferson) and Cameron Williams (Inwood, W.Va. / Musselman) finished with 12 and 11 points apiece.
• The game featured 11 different lead changes with Mont Alto playing solid defense and looking to push the pace.

How it Happened

• Penn State Fayette raced out to a 5-0 lead, but PSUMA quickly tied it up with two straight buckets including a Marcus Roper (Charles Town, W. Va. / Jefferson) 3-pointer that tied it up with 16:24 left in the half.
• Back and forth battle with the teams trading baskets for the next seven or so minutes. Mont Alto looked to run in transition and had the 14-13 lead at the media timeout with 9:04 remaining.
• An old fashioned 3-point play was converted by John Teague (Hagerstown, Md. / North Hagerstown) that put PSUMA up 24-16. Mont Alto played pretty even within the final two minutes of the half and carried a 28-21 lead into the halftime break.
• PSUMA brought the energy to open the second half and continued to lead through the first four minutes and went up 32-27 after a Teague layup.
• Back to back 3-pointers courtesy of Trevor Laskody gave Fayette the narrow 33-32 lead. PSUMA clawed back with a Cameron Williams's (Inwood, W.Va. / Musselman) steal and easy layup at 36-35 with 11:11 remaining.
• The teams literally went basket for basket for the next five minutes and Mont Alto's Marcus Roper (Charles Town, W. Va. / Jefferson) hit a runner in the paint to put them up 42-38.  Solid defense during the final seven or so minutes made baskets hard to come by and another Teague layup put PSUMA up 47-41 with a 1:20 left.
• Mont Alto nursed the lead in the final minute and held on for the 51-47 final.

Penn State Mont Alto returns to action in a home contest against PSU New Kensington. PSUMA will look for the sweep of the season series on Tuesday with tip-off slated for 8 p.m.