Lions Fall to Salisbury in Wednesday Matinee
ALTOONA, Pa. – In its final non-conference matchup of the schedule, the Penn State Altoona men's basketball team was handed a 102-81 loss by Salisbury University on Wednesday afternoon in the Adler Arena.
Salisbury (6-8), playing in its first game since December 21, led by as many as 15 points during the first half before Penn State Altoona (11-3) battled back to trim its deficit to two by halftime. But the Sea Gulls outscored the Lions 55-36 during a second half that saw the visitors shoot 61.8 percent from the field while limiting the home squad to a 34.3 field goal percentage.
"Not the way we wanted to finish our non-conference season, but we ran into a Salisbury team that has been itching to play since their last game on December 21," said Penn State Altoona head coach David McGreal. "In the second half, they wanted it more than we did."
Andruw Harman (Chesapeake, VA/Great Bridge) notched his second double-double of the season to lead Penn State Altoona's scoring and rebounding efforts, finishing with 19 points and 11 rebounds. Varun Ajjarapu (Tampa, FL/Berkeley Prep) added 17 points while recording team-highs with seven steals and six assists, with his seven steals tying for the most in a single game in Lions history. PJ Charles (Altoona, PA/Altoona) contributed 14 points and seven boards.
Salisbury's Brandon Craig led all scorers with 21 points, and Sean Carr finished with 18 points. Greg Bloodsworth added 17 points and nine assists for the Sea Gulls.
"I thought we did a good job in the first half of making it hard for them to score and turned them over quite a bit, but in the second half once they figured out how to handle the press, they started making everything," said McGreal. "We didn't hit any of our defensive goals in the second half, and a lot of that has to do with Salisbury's hot shooting. We also have a lot of things we need to fix on the defensive end."
Salisbury got out to a 7-0 lead just over a minute-and-a-half into the game, but Penn State Altoona awoke to even the score 11-11. Free throws from Alex McClellan (York, PA/West York) and Charles got the Lions on the board, and layups from Harman and Charles and a three-pointer by Mason Bush (Pittsburgh, PA/Seneca Valley) knotted the score at 11 points by 15:36. However, Salisbury outscored Penn State Altoona 18-3 through the 9:56 mark, when Craig's layup gave the visitors a 29-14 advantage, their largest of the period.
Penn State Altoona answered Salisbury's run by posting a 31-18 scoring advantage over the Sea Gulls for the remainder of the first half. Ajjarapu's layup and free throw at 9:33 brought the Lions' deficit back to 10, 29-19, and baskets from Ajjarapu and Harman got their team back to within single digits, 31-23, with 8:40 on the clock. Casey Parkins (Laurel, MD/Atholton) connected on a three-pointer at 6:13 to bring Penn State Altoona to within two, 34-32. Just over four minutes later, McClellan hit a trey to keep the difference at two points, 42-40, and two Harman foul shots with 27 seconds remaining set the halftime score, 47-45.
Ajjarapu opened the second half scoring with a layup on the Lions' first possession that tied the score for the first time since the game's start. But Salisbury embarked on a 15-2 run through the 15:18 mark, when Carr's jumper put his team up 62-49. Parkins' layup at 13:50 and a pair of foul shots by Charles at 12:56 helped Penn State Altoona get back to within nine points, 66-57. But the Lions ultimately were unable to get any closer to the Salisbury lead, as the Sea Gulls maintained a double-digit advantage for the final 12:32 of the game.
Penn State Altoona men's basketball returns to Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference play in its next game, when the Lions will host Penn State Behrend in the AMCC Game of the Week this Saturday, January 15 at 4:00 p.m. in the Adler Arena. The contest will feature the top two teams in the conference standings.
"No time to fret over this one. Our most important game of the week is Saturday at home against Behrend, when we can hopefully keep our perfect conference record intact," said McGreal. "We hope to see a better student turnout for the game on Saturday, so please come support these student-athletes. We are!"
