Beaver fall in close match against Fayette, 69-65

By: Matylda Zamudio

MONACA, Pa. — The Penn State Beaver men's basketball team fell in a tight match against PSUAC rival Penn State Fayette 69-65 in Monday night's home game.

Freshman forward/center Jeremy Redwine (Merced) led the pack tonight, scoring a double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds, followed by PSUAC Player of the Week junior guard John Foster (Austin/Del Valle), who racked up 16 points and five rebounds.

Freshman guard Sonny Martinez (Austin) also had a notable performance tonight, adding on 14 points from off the bench.

1st half: Foster opened up the game scoring, knocking down an early 3-point jumper at 19:23, which fostered Beaver's 10-0 run. Beaver controlled the tempo of the game for the next 10 minutes, and at 9:27, freshman guard Keon Butler (Annapolis/Star Severn School) sunk a 3-point bucket to give Beaver its largest lead of 17 points (23-6). However, Fayette made a comeback with the help of six 3-pointers in under seven minutes to take a 4-point lead over Beaver (31-27), followed by a seventh shot from behind the arch to go up by 6 points (36-30). But Beaver answered with the final 5 points of the half, capped off by a buzzer beater 3-pointer by Redwine to allow Beaver to only trail by 1 point (36-35).

2nd half: After the break, the teams kept the score close with Fayette only ahead by a few points for the first five minutes. Then, however, the Fayette men began widening their advantage and went up by 10 at the 9:43 mark (55-45). Beaver got the game within striking distance, cutting the deficit down to only a 5-points, but the Lions couldn't get over the hump and fell to Fayette by a final score of 69-65.

Box Score Highlights: Beaver outrebounded Fayette 31-30, racked three more assists (18-15) and outscored Penn State Fayette 36-26 on points in the points in the paint.

With today's loss to Fayette, Beaver sits at an 8-5 conference record and 12-6 overall for the regular season.

Beaver is on the road for its next game against Penn State Greater Allegheny on Wednesday, Feb. 6, to play the second of four PSUAC matches this week. The game begins at 8 p.m.