ALTOONA, Pa. – In a game that featured 20 lead changes and 16 times where the score was tied, No. 3 Penn State Altoona executed at the end of the game to pull off a 95-88 First Round victory over No. 6 Hilbert College in the Alder Arena tonight.
The Hawks shooting percentage dropped in the second half, but they were able to get to the foul line more often, yet the Lions elevated their shooting percentage in the second half, while also defending the rim, to advance into the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference Final Four this weekend.
HIGHLIGHTS
- A trio of Hawks scored 17 points tonight. Nathan Moore (5-of-8 3pf FG), Quran Briggs (7-of-16 FG) and Larry Morse (7-of-11 FG) kept the Hawks competitive, and Austin Boies was a huge lift off the bench tossing in 13 points (2-of-6 3pt FG, and 5-of-5 FT) .
- Shaheem Ellis led the Hawks with five assists, chipped in four points and matched Boies with a team-best seven rebounds.
- Jamarius Johnson was perfect from the floor hitting both field goal attempts and all four free throws.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Both teams opened the game on fire, focused on putting as many points on the board as possible. After Moore and Briggs hit a pair of three pointers to start the game, Hilbert had to play catch up the rest of the half.
- The Hawks had a few empty trips while the Lions converted at the other end of the floor to maintain at least a two-possession lead, until Hilbert shifted to a zone defensively.
- Back-to-back 3's by Justin Poumpey and Austin Boies knotted the game at 27, yet Hilbert couldn't get over the hump.
- Morse scored two buckets in the paint on Hilbert's next two trips but empty trips by the Hawks while the Lions were still in score-mode resulted in a 38-31 score with 6:21 on clock.
- The Hawks were clawing back before intermission with another pair of 3's by Moore and Boies but they gave up a bunny in the lane with time expiring that set the 51-46 half time score.
- Nate Moore hit 3-of-4 from deep plus one head-fake jumper inside the arc to lead the Hawks with 12 points at half time while Altoona's Nehemiah Frye tossed in 20 points hitting all four 3-pt attempts.
- After the break, Ronnie Lewis made a 3 in the right corner and Briggs finished a 3-point play on the next trip to make one possession game.
- The Lions stretched their score again, but Briggs had to settle for just the made three, and not the 4-point play around the 14-minute mark.
- Johnson finished a lob from Briggs 65-63, Boies grabbed an offensive rebound, scored and added the third point from the foul line before Moore gave the Hawks their first lead (69-67 – 11:04) since they held a 6-5 lead just two minutes into the game.
- Missed jumpers in the lane by the Hawks allowed the Lions to run for scores in the paint or from stop & pop.
- Morse started a run, Moore went 2-for-2 at the charity stripe after stealing the ball, Harley with a putback score and Morse with a 3-point play pulled Hilbert back into the game (74-74) and forced an Altoona timeout at 7:02.
- Morse and Ellis tacked four more points from the foul line to even that game at 82-all
- Briggs took another ball off the bounce to the rim for the score and Boies came up with the offensive rebound off the missed freebie yet didn't get the call when he went back up strong to the rim.
- After Morse finished an offensive rebound into two points in the paint and lifted the Hawks 86-84, the Lions sprinted the floor and hit a deep shot to go back up by one point with 2:57.
- Altoona missed a desperation 3-pointer as the shot clock was winding down but outworked the Hawks for two offensive rebounds which resulted in an 89-86 score.
- Boies got his own offensive rebound and finished both free throws which kept it a one-point game before the Lions hit a tough midrange, bank-shot off the bounce with less than one minute remaining.
- The Hawks were unable to score at their end of the floor and they had to foul as time wound down to stop the clock in the loss.
GAME NOTES
- Hilbert finished the second half with a .389 field goal percentage, down from the first half's 45.5%. The Hawks hit 11-of-29 from the 3-point line and made 19-of-23 free throws.
- Altoona improved their first half shooting (54.3%) to 60.0%. They made only seven 3-pointers and hit 14-of-18 from the charity stripe.
- Altoona earned four more rebounds, but the Hawks grabbed three more offensive rebounds.
- Ronnie Lewis (2) and Justin Poumpey each struck from downtown while Malachi Hartley add three points to the Hawks efforts.
Hilbert concluded their season at 14-12 overall and with a 7-9 AMCC league record. The Hawks advanced for the 12th time over the last 14 seasons to the AMCC tournament and made their 14th appearance in the postseason since joining the league in the 2024-05 season