BUFFALO, N.Y. – Penn State Altoona men's basketball suffered an 89-74 loss to Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference opponent Medaille College on Saturday afternoon at the Sullivan Center.

The Lions (11-7, 7-4 AMCC) dug themselves into a hole in the first half and were unable to make up any ground, losing by 15 points.

"If we think we can be one of the top teams in the league, we have to put away our selfish desires and play more as a team on both ends of the floor," said Penn State Altoona head coach David McGreal. "Medaille played very well tonight and shot the ball very well, but at the end of the day, we didn't execute our game plan defensively and didn't win one fifty-fifty ball. On the road, that equals a loss."

Ishimeal Nance (Muscle Shoals, AL/Muscle Shoals) led Penn State Altoona and all players in scoring with 30 points to go along with six rebounds. Jalen Archie-Davis (Norcross, GA/Norcross) added 14 points, and Rich Bouknight (Norristown, PA/Norristown) scored 11. Cameron Gardner-Nicholson (Philadephia, PA/Boys' Latin Charter) posted game-highs with 14 rebounds and five blocks.

Medaille (12-7, 9-3 AMCC) got 20 points from Mike Hollenbeck, 19 points from Jalen Smith, and 18 points from Justice Fagan.

Back-to-back buckets from Archie-Davis helped Penn State Altoona to a 12-10 lead by 15:31 of the first half, and Bouknight's layup one minute later made it 14-10.

But Medaille embarked on an 11-0 run to erase the Lions' lead and grab a double-digit advantage of its own. After Smith's three-pointer at 8:39 gave the home team a seven-point lead, baskets on consecutive possessions by Cedric Mondiji made it 25-14 by the 7:26 mark. Scores from Hollenbeck and Meghale Ford helped to keep the difference at 11 points, 29-18, with 4:27 to go in the half. Late three-pointers from Hollenback and Ford gave the Mavericks a 41-26 lead going into halftime.

Medaille continued to hold a double-digit lead for the majority of the second half. Fagan's trey at 13:39 made it a 16-point game, 53-37.

After that basket, Nance helped Penn State Altoona to briefly close the gap back to single digits. His three-pointer at 13:21, fastbreak dunk at 12:50, and pair of free throws at 11:47 accounted for all of the points on a 7-0 run that narrowed Medaille's lead to 53-44.

A three-pointer from Aubrey Washington II (Jacksonville, FL/University Christian) and layup from Bouknight helped cut the Mavericks' lead to eight points, 66-57, with 8:08 to play.

But Medaille used a 15-5 run to boost its lead to 19 points, its largest advantage of the day. During that run, Smith hit two three-pointers to go along with a transition layup, and Hollenbeck added five points of his own as the Mavericks established an 81-62 lead with 4:56 to go.

Men's basketball gets right back to action tomorrow, Sunday, January 28, when its continues its Buffalo, N.Y. road trip by facing AMCC opponent D'Youville College for a 1:00 p.m. game.

"We better come to play tomorrow," said McGreal. "D'Youville is a good team, and we cannot afford to lose back-to-back."