Brandywine Notches First Victory, 72-58

MONACA, Pa. – Penn State Brandywine overcame a slow start and defeated Penn State Beaver 72-58 for its first victory of the season as the teams opened Penn State University Athletic Conference men's basketball play Friday night.

During its first 12 possessions of the night, Brandywine missed all five of its shots and committed seven turnovers as the Lions fell into a 10-0 hole.

Tim Mattern (Lincoln University, Pa./Salesianum) ended a nearly seven-minute scoring drought with a three-pointer. After misfiring on its first five attempts, Mattern's triple began a 17-2 run over the next three minutes, aided by 7-of-8 shooting from the field.

After Brandywine rallied to take a 17-12 edge, Beaver answered with 14 of the next 18 points to jump back in front; however, Brandywine surged into the half, outscoring Beaver 14-2 over the final 5:30 to grab a 35-28 edge at intermission.

Beaver netted the first bucket of the second period, but Brandywine scored the next 11 points via three-pointers from Olayinka Itabiyi (Chester, Pa./Chester) and Dillon Jones (Wilmington, Del./Hodgson Vo-Tech) and layups by Johnta Dunson (Philadelphia, Pa./Freire Charter) and A.J. Dreger (Newtown Square, Pa./Bonner-Prendie) as the Lions' lead moved to 15 points with 14:48 to go.

Brandywine maintained a double-figure edge for the next 10 minutes, leading by as many as 16 points, following Dreger's four-point play at the 8:34 mark.

Beaver cut the margin to nine just over three minutes later, but two Jamar Wright (Wilmington, Del./Conrad School of Science) free throws and five points from Colin Hockenbrock (Wilmington, Del./St. Elizabeth) in a span of 1:20 helped push the Lions' lead back to double digits the remainder of the way.

Hockenbrock paced a balanced scoring effort for the Lions with 16 points, while Dunson paired 15 points with nine rebounds. Dreger was the third Lion scorer in double figures with 11 markers. Wright added nine points, while Jaden Kelly (Philadelphia, Pa./GAMP) tallied eight points and eight boards.

Brandywine shot 50 percent from the field, while limiting Beaver to 36 percent shooting.

Brandywine (1-2, 1-0 PSUAC) will look for the PSUAC weekend sweep when the Lions face Penn State Fayette Saturday at 3:00 PM.