HAMBURG, N.Y. – A scoring slump midway through Saturday afternoon's Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference men's basketball matchup between Penn State Altoona and Hilbert College proved costly for the Lions, who sustained an 87-84 loss to the Hawks at the Hafner Recreation Center.

Penn State Altoona (5-5, 2-1 AMCC) built a 13-point lead late in the first half, only to see Hilbert (8-1, 2-0 AMCC) outscore the Lions 43-14 over the next 15 minutes of game play. Penn State Altoona fought back late, cutting its deficit to three points with under a minute remaining, but Hilbert held on to prevail by three.

"Tough road loss today. It is crazy coaching – we played about 25 minutes of some of the best basketball we've played all year, but the problem there was 15 minutes of some of the worst basketball we have played all year, and that was what killed us," said Penn State Altoona head coach David McGreal. "I hate wasting timeouts when other teams go on a run. I usually like to dictate the timeouts based on our positive runs, but it looks like I'm going to have to rethink that strategy with this group."

Nehemiah Frye (King George, VA/King George) led Penn State Altoona in scoring with 19 points, helped by a 7-for-10 performance from the floor. Kal-El Gentles (Austin, TX/San Juan Diego) notched his first double-double with 13 points and 11 assists, tying for the third-most assists in a game in Lions history.

Dwayne Jones (Philadelphia, PA/Greater Johnstown) contributed 18 points, Kaden Claar (Portage, PA/Portage) scored 12 to go along with six rebounds and three steals, and Zion Bruce (Kihei, HI/Maryknoll) and Jalen Martinez (Brooklyn, NY/New Hope Academy) provided nine and eight points, respectively, off the bench.

Hilbert got a game-high 21 points from Shaheem Ellis, as well as 20 points from Nathan Moore. Larry Morse added 17 points for the Hawks, and Ronnie Lewis scored 13. Hilbert's rally was keyed by a 60.0 percent field goal percentage during the second half.

"Hilbert shot out of their minds today," said McGreal. "Some of that was just good offense, but too much of it was bad defense and missed assignments."

Penn State Altoona established a 13-point lead in the first half, only to have Hilbert surge back late in the period to take the lead at the half.

The Lions used three-pointers from Gentles and Claar to score the game's first points, and Gentles' jumper kept his team's lead at six, 10-4. After Hilbert got treys from Ellis and Moore to knot the score, Penn State Altoona went on a 7-0 run, capped by a Jones three-pointer at 15:21 which gave his team a 17-10 advantage.

Hilbert again pushed back, leaping ahead 20-19 after Lewis' jump shot at 13:35. But Penn State Altoona responded with another run, this time outscoring the Hawks 12-0 over the next five minutes, with a Martinez layup giving the Lions a 31-20 lead. Another basket by Martinez at 6:32 gave Penn State Altoona an 11-point advantage, 37-26, and Frye's score at 3:56 put his team up by 13, 41-28. Claar hit a jump shot at 3:01 to keep the difference at 13 points, 43-30.

However, the Hawks ended the half on a 17-2 run to go into the intermission up by two points. Moore's three-pointer with 54 seconds left in the period cut the Lions' advantage to one, and an Ellis layup and foul shot with five seconds to go gave the home team a 45-43 lead.

Jones' dunk early in the second half kept Penn State Altoona's deficit at two points, 47-45, but Hilbert continued to ride its momentum from the first half. Quran Briggs' layup at 16:52 gave the home team a 55-45 lead, and Lewis' three-pointer at 13:03 made it 64-51. Treys from Lewis and Sonny Williams gave the Hawks a 15-point advantage, 70-55, and Briggs hit a three-pointer at 8:15 to put Hilbert up by 16 points, 73-57.

The Lions whittled away at their deficit over the next several minutes. Baskets from Frye, Jones, and Gentles got Penn State Altoona back to within 12, 77-65, and two Gentles free throws and a Martinez layup made it a 10-point game, 79-69, by the 4:25 mark.

Penn State Altoona continued to work its way back, getting a three-pointer from Claar and layup from Jones to trim Hilbert's lead to seven points, 81-74, with three minutes left. A minute later, Jones converted on a three-point play to make it 83-77, and Frye connected on a three-pointer at 1:29 to get the Lions within five, 85-80. Frye sank two foul shots with 56 seconds to go to get Penn State Altoona within three, 85-82.

But Hilbert came up with a big answer on its next possession, getting a basket from Ellis to boost its lead back to 87-82 with 27 seconds to go. The Lions were unable to respond quickly at the other end, and after a last-second layup from Jones, the visitors were forced to settle for a close loss.

Next up, Penn State Altoona will travel to Erie for an exhibition game against Division I Mercyhurst University on Tuesday, December 10, at 7 p.m.

"We get to take a break from conference play for a bit and get refocused for the conference run," said McGreal. "That's all that matters at this point."