A O I Behrend Beacon C y\
I February 26, 2010 J I J
® I www.thebehrendbeacon.com
MEN’S AND WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
AMCC championship tournament
Men's season rolls on as they defeat
The Behrend Lions came out on top in an
citing game for the start of the playoff seat
The Lions took on Penn State Altoona at
Junker Center on Tuesday to start off the p
offs for the AMCC Championships.
The game started off slow, with neither t
scoring any points in the first five minu
Behrend missed their first five shots, and
toona missed their first six.
The slow start was mainly due to familial
and nerves from the start of the playoffs, bt
that changed when Russ Conley put the first
points on the board with his layup.
From there, the Lions fed off his energy
continue forcing turnovers and turning tl
into points against Altoona.
“This is the third time we have played
toona, the second time in four days, so we w<
very familiar with them,” said senior forw?
Adam Potter. “That, in addition to maybe sr
playoff nerves on both sides, led to a slow
start, and thankfully Russ's layup got the
rolling for the rest of the game.”
After Conley’s layup, it was a close bi
with Altoona. Behrend made 11 out of thi
shots from the floor in the first half, It
which were scored by junior guard Jui
Kovac, while Altoona managed to tie the gf
with a layup.
However, by forcing 11 turnovers, Behrend
was able to get ahead, leaving the court at the
half leading 29-23.
The men came out of the locker room after
halftime ready to finish and determined to ad
vance to the next round of the playoffs. With
Behrend taking charge on the court, they
scored the first nine points in the second half.
This half was very controversial as the officials
handed out numerous fouls to Behrend. How
ever, the Lions refused to let the calls take their
victory away from them.
“We tried to ignore the officials and play our
game,” Kgvac said “They are uncontrol
lable
at hand, ,AdKeM>6U <hd ( ItAenfeam.”.
The second half success came mostly from
the hand of Kovac, as he had 19 points. Potter
added 11 and Chris Saltzman totaled eight.
In the final minutes of the game, freshman
guard Adam Palcic came off the bench con
tributing six rebounds.
The excitement in the crowd at the Junker
Center was extremely high in the final minutes
of the game. Behrend finished with a score of
67-48, knocking Penn State Altoona out of the
playoffs.
“Bradford is a tough physical team and we
expect nothing but their best shot in the play
off,” Potter said. “Right now we are really start
ing to play well as a team both offensively and
defensively, and if we play with the same en
ergy like we did tonight, I like our chances
against anyone."
The Lions will play Pitt-Bradford on Friday.
Pitt-Bradford is ranked second in the AMCC
while Behrend is third.
“We expect a hard fought game,” Kovac said.
“We beat them twice during the regular season
with each contest being very physical. They
play hard and are a good team; we will have to
play well to come out on top.”
PSBlions.com
Junior Krystal Kovach took first place in both the 1 -meter and 3-meter
dive at the AMCC tournament in Grove City last week.
Altoona 57-48
AMANDA STETZ
senior ref:
ATHLETE OF THE WEEK
Krystal Kovach sweeps AMCC diving
The junior diver captured every Behrend women's diving record this year
Krystal Kovach, an accomplished gym
nast, never imagined herself standing on
the high dive competing at the collegiate
level coming into college, much less going
to the NCAA tournament as a sophomore
and qualifying for it again as a junior.
She has had much more success as a
diver than that though and after placing
first in both the one and three meter dive
at Grove City last week, Kovach was
named the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Athlete
of the Week.
’*<' », >1
Kovach, a junior majoring in biology who
is looking to focus in wildlife and fisheries,
is from Scott Township, Pa. (Chartiers Val
ley). She had absolutely no expectations
when she jumped off the board for the first
time in the Junker Center for Behrend as a
freshman.
“I was hesitant to call head coach Jen
Wallace about trying for a spot on the team
because I’ve never dove before, and I didn’t
know what to expect from college diving
and didn't plan to become a part of
Behrend swimming and diving until about
Jon Klein/The Behri
(left) Senior forward Adah
(right) Freshmen guard Aly Eagle,
ALEC ITALIANO
sports editor
AMCC tournament road ends
prematurely for women
two weeks before I started my freshman
year at Behrend,” Kovach said.
Her short diving career proved very suc
cessful. Her most impressive accomplish
ment is breaking all the previous team
diving records at Behrend. These include
three Behrend pool records, two at Chat
tarn University and one a piece at Grove
City and Gannon.
Kovach also won AMCC’s all three years
competing and is the first Behrend aquatic
athlete to compete in the tourna
ment.
Often found with her iPod in before a
dive, Kovach is very focused before a meet
and tries to block everything else out be
fore stepping up on the board.
“I work on fixing things during practice
that week and try to let my body do its
thing during competition,” Kovach said.
“Before 1 do a dive, I visualize what I want
the dive to look like and work through the
motions on the pool deck, but I try not to
think too much about anything before I
dive.”
Although most of her time is now fo
cused toward diving, that was not always
the case.
“I like diving, but I wouldn't call it my
It was a disappoint
ing loss for the women’s
basketball team as they
had high hopes going into
the AMCC Playoffs, but fell to
Penn State Altoona 72-63.
, The women would lose two
' games in a row(their last regu
i lar season game against Al
? toopa), and their rematch
against Altoona three days later
in the playoffs.
Altoona led by 21 points
going into halftime, but as is the
/ case with Behrend all season long,
they charged back and brought the
deficit to only two ppints. In a game that
saw back and forth momentum the Blue
* | and White battled back basically the en
'*• tire game.
| An 11-point run was not enough to
I counter Altoona’s 21 -point run through
J the course of the game.
■ Behrend would have trouble, stop
lk ping Alicia Glasser and Marissa Lucas
* from Altoona, as both combined for' 31
points. Also, Lucas led all players with
njne rebounds.
Senior forward Christine Krankota
said that, “throughout this season, we
have dealt with more than our fair share of
'; adversity, and I believe the experience we
gained played a big role in us nearly complet
ing a 21- point comeback against Altoona.”
Behrend had caught Altoona in the midst of
a three game winning streak. On the other
hand, the Lions were
on a five game win
ning streak before
being derailed by Al
toona in the last regu
lar season game of the
v Reason. However, it
, sjeemed as if Behrend
has had trouble against
Altoona for most of the
season, Behrend put up a
fight in the AMCC touma-
ment, and also ended with
an overall winning record
Behrend would finish the
season with an overall record
of 14-11. Oh the other side,
Altoona would set a school
record for wins, earning their
20th win of the season against Behrend,
Following the game, several players reflected on
their overall season.
“The loss is disappointing; with the amount of talent
and potential we had as a team, this wasn’t on par
with our expectations,” Krakota said.
“We ended the season with a winning record, and
we overcame so much adversity; we really came to
gether and I hate to see it end. Any other team would
have given up being down 21 points,” said junior
guard Amy Oldach.
For Behrend, their season would end on a negative
note. For their loss, their season may be looked at as
a disappointment, but deep down it should be looked
back on as a success. Their strong effort and desire
will set them apart for future Behrend teams to come.
passion,” Kovach said. “If 1 had to pick a
sport that was my passion it would be gym
nastics, for which I have many more ac
complishments.”
Kovach showed great strides in gymnas
tics, making it to level nine nationals her
last two years competing in the sport.
There are only ten levels in gymnastics, so
level nine in gymnasticsis pretty close to
the top of the sport.
Athletes are considered for world com
petitions, including the Olympics, at the
junior and senior elite levels after level ten.
Aside from traveling to level nine nation
als her last two years competing, she was
also the level nine state champion her last
year and won many individual first place
awards in the sport before retiring a suc
cessful gymnastic career. Kovach trans
formed that into an outstanding diving
career so far for Behrend.
“Before I officially became a part of the
team and up until the middle of my first
season, I wasn't sure if I could make it in
college diving, but I wanted to try, and I'm
glad I did,” Kovach said. “It's funny, you
never know what you can do until you try,
and you can do anything you put your
mind to really.”
orts
SEAN NEELY
staff writer
“We ended the
season with a
winning record*
and we over-
came so much
adversity.”
AmytOldach
junior guard