Penn State DuBois Men Accomplishes DIII Road Win
WASHINGTON, Pa. – The upperclassmen led Penn State DuBois to 89-83 satisfying win over Washington & Jefferson College at the Henry Memorial Center. With the win, PSUD improves to 4-1 heading into the break for the holiday. PSUD will look to start conference play right as they travel to Penn State Beaver, a conference rival December 1st.
At the 12:15 mark PSUD found themselves knotted at 15 with W&J, a NCAA Division III opponent from the President's Athletic Conference. Over the next 7 minutes, W&J went on a 24-7 run getting mostly layups off of a unfocused PSUD defense. W&J scored 52 of its 83 points in the paint. W&J would push the lead to as many as 19 points, PSUD was able to go on a small run (11-3) with help from Kyle Mills (Bushkill, PA) as he put in back to back layups. W&J however answered with a buzzer beating 3 to close the half up 49-35.
"I told the guys at halftime not to panic, I felt confident this one was not over. The second half will be a grind, we won't erase the lead on a few possessions, if we can play defense like we did on our 11-3 run we will get back in the game. We made many small mistakes in the first half that led to easy baskets. We also felt confident our depth would wear them down at some point in the second half" stated head coach Dylan Howard.
PSUD did just that in the second half, as they started the second half with more focus and energy on the defense end. PSUD quickly cut into the W&J lead with 3 point baskets from Kyle Mills and Tristan Pierce (Lancaster,OH) only 1 minute and 18 seconds into the second half. W&J would answer the energy maintaining at least an 8 point lead until the 10:02 mark of the second half. From that point on, Louie Conde (Ewing,NJ) and Sam Roselli (Ridgway, PA) would take over on the offensive end as they combined for 19 of PSUD's final 29 points. Conde, Roselli, Mills, and Pierce all upperclassmen, combined to score the last 47 points for PSUD. The lions took their first lead since leading 8-7 in the first half, 82-80 with 3:01 left in the game. After a tie game at 2:42 PSUD would not give back the lead to W&J as clutch free throw shooting closed out the impressive comeback for the PSUD squad.
"We have a roster full of high character guys, tonight that was on display. The coaching staff couldn't be happier with how well the guys stuck with the game plan, stayed positive, and continued to believe in each other" said coach Howard.
Louie Conde led all players with 27 points including 12-14 from the line, he also added 9 rebounds and six assists. Sam Roselli recorded a double-double of 26 points (12-18 shooting) and 10 boards. Tristan Pierce and Kyle Mills chipped in with 18 and 12 points respectively.
The Penn State DuBois men will be on the road again at Penn State Beaver December 1st as they open up conference play. The tip-off is scheduled for 8 pm following the women's contest.