PSUD Men Handed Tough Home Loss
Wednesday night Penn State DuBois Men's basketball welcomed conference foe Penn State Greater Allegheny to the DuBois campus for the first of two meetings between the two branch campus'. PSUD fell 84-77 to the now 4-0 in conference PSU GA. The game had a slow start as both teams came out with energy and a focus on the defensive end. At the 13:10 mark the score was 11-10 in favor of PSU GA, PSUD receive early baskets from 4 different players. After PSU GA made a run to go up 18-10 at the 11:26 mark, PSUD went on a run (33 to 18) closing the half up 43-36. Sam Roselli (14 points, 8 rebounds) and Jordan Knappenberger (8 points, 3 rebounds) both played well in the first 20 minutes for PSUD.
The second half started much faster than the first 20 minutes. Both teams were able to flow into the offense. PSUD held the lead until the 12:24 mark after some hot shooting by PSU GA. PSUD fell down by 12 at the 9:52 mark as PSU GA continued to play well on the offensive end. After a timeout and a few adjustments defensively, PSUD again went on a run to close the lead for PSU GA down to 1 at 5:02 on the clock. That is as close as PSUD would get as fatigue and mental mistakes would doom PSUD in the final 5 minutes.
"We played very hard with focus in the first half, as some fatigue set in we lost our mental focus leading to some break downs on defense that gave PSU GA easy looks," said PSUD coach Dylan Howard. "They were much bigger and more athletic than us, we did a great job on the boards tonight, but I think that extra effort took its toll on us." "PSU GA is a good team, against good teams you can't have that many breakdowns." "We will learn from this and move on to the next game," also added Howard.
The loss spoiled a great effort by Senior point guard Louie Conde of PSUD who finished with 20 points, 14 rebounds, and 6 assists. Sam Roselli had another double double with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Tristan Pierce added 18 points in just 18 minutes of play (foul trouble) and Jordan Knappenberger sparked the team with 10 points off of the bench.
PSUD looks to rebound Friday at home as they welcome PSU Brandywine to the multipurpose gymnasium. Tip is scheduled for 8 pm.
Notes- PSUD was 24-27 from the foul line.