2025 AMCC Men's Basketball First Round News and Notes
#6 Hilbert College Hawks (14-11, 7-9) at # 3 Penn State Altoona Lions (16-9, 12-4)
Tuesday, February 25^th, 2025
Alder Athletic Complex | Altoona, PA | 6 pm
Live Stats | Live Video
 
Hilbert Hawks

• Hilbert earned the AMCC's sixth seed and 12^th playoff appearance in the last 14 seasons after a 7-9 conference campaign.
• The high-powered offense of the Hawks (2^nd in AMCC with 85.3 points per game) features three players on the conference's top ten points per game list.
• Shaheem Ellis (4^th in AMCC with 18.1 ppg), Larry Morse (7^th in AMCC with 17.3 ppg) and Quran Briggs (8^th in AMCC with 16.5 ppg) contributed to over half of the Hilbert scoring this season.
• Ellis and Morse each rank amongst the nation's best, as Ellis is 25^th in all of Division III with 129 total assists, while Morse is 14^th in Division III with 13 double-doubles on the season.
• The duo joins Nathan Moore as Hawks occupying top spots of AMCC statistical leaderboards. Ellis is first in the conference in total assists (129), assists per game (5.1) and is tied for first with 69 made threes. Morse's 110 offensive rebounds (4.4 per game), and 247 total rebounds (9.9 per game) rank him first on both total and per game lists, while Moore's 44.9% three-point shooting percentage tops the AMCC.
• As a team, the Hawks take care of the ball and defend the three-point line well as their 13 turnovers per game and opponents' 28.8 three-point percentage rank third and first respectively in the conference.

 
Penn State Altoona Lions

• The Lions also posses a strong offense as their 84 points per game ranked them third in the conference.
• Dwayne Jones (16.5 ppg), Kal-El Gentles (14.2 ppg) and Kaden Claar (11.8 ppg) lead the way for the Altoona offense.
• Jones, the two-time reigning AMCC Defensive Player of the Year, anchors a defense the leads the conference with 4.6 blocks per game and is fourth. in the AMCC with 78.3 points against per contest. Jones' 2.5 blocks per game and 62 total blocks are both good for first in the conference.
• Jones (8.2 rebounds per game), and Claar (41.2 three-point %) each trail right behind a Hawk on the AMCC leaderboards (Morse and Moore), while Gentles is third in the conference with 4.1 assists per game, behind Ellis and Pitt-Greensburg's Trent Rozich.
• The Lions have enjoyed recent success as they head into the postseason winners of five of their last six games.
• Altoona enjoys the Alder Athletic Complex as they finished the regular season 7-1 at home.

 
Series History

• The Hawks and Lions split this season's matchups with the home team winning each game.
• On December 7^th, 2024, Hilbert earned a tight 87-84 victory over Altoona in Hamburg as the Hawks used a 17-2 late first half run to take control of the game.
• Ellis and Moore were the games' highest scorers with 21 and 20 points respectively, while Ronnie Lewis' 13 points were the most the forward scored in a conference game this season.
• Gentles contributed with a 13-point, 11 assist double-double and Nehemiah Frye tossed in 19 points for the visitors in the losing effort.
• The Lions evened the season series with a 91-86 victory over the Hawks at home on January 25^th, 2025. Just like Hilbert in the first meeting between the two teams, Altoona used a large run late in the first half to secure the win.
• Jones led all scorers with 24 points, while Briggs led the Hawks with 21 points in a game that saw Ellis record his 1,000 career point.
• All time, Hilbert owns an 18-12 record against the Lions dating back to the 2010-2011 campaign. The Hawks won the first nine meetings between the two conference foes and have enjoyed wins in three of the last four matchups.

 
Stat Comparisons – Conference only games:

Points per game / offense:                                   85.3 HIL | 84.0 PSA   
Points per game / defense:                                 83.9 HIL | 77.9 PSA
FG% offense:                                                       48.4% HIL | 40.1% PSA   
FG% defense:                                                     46.2% HIL | 42.4%  PSA
3FG% offense:                                                     35.5% HIL | 32.4% PSA  
3FG% defense:                                                   29.1% HIL | 35.9% PSA
Rebound offense:                                                14.8 HIL | 9.1 PSA   
Rebound defense:                                              24.8 HIL | 26.2 PSA
Steals                                                                  5.9 HIL | 10.6 PSA