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The Behrend Beacon
Lions ride streak to top o
•umpe ai
Dynamic duo
Curren, Hairston lead Uons basketball to top of AMCC
by Zoe Rose
contributing writer
With eight games left to go before the
Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Con
letenee, the Penn State Behrend men’s
basketball team looks to keep up it’s
steady pace at the head of the pack in
the conference.
Currently tied for first place with Pitt-
Uradford, the squad has a 5-1 confer-
Juniors James v jrren and
as a great complement.
scored
ence record and on the season have a
5-1 overall record.
Last Saturday, the Lions invited
La Roche to their home turf followed
by a game against Oberlin before they
hosted the Pitt-Greensburg Bobcats on
Wednesday night.
In front of 225 fans, Behrend
pulled out a 63-50 win against La
Roche. The three top players of the
game were familiar faces: Curren with
lirston lead the team in scoring. rren i
Friday, January 31, 2003
by Kevin Fiorenzo
staff writer
The Behrend women’s basket
ball team continued its winning
ways this past week against confer
ence opponents La Roche and Pitt-
Greensburg, increasing their win
streak to three games.
On Jan. 27, the Lions played a
home game against conference ri
val La Roche. The game was a low
scoring contest and both teams
competed hard for the duration.
Leading the way for Behrend was
point guard Erica Mozdy, who had
11 points and 6 rebounds.
Forward Amber Krumpe also
contributed solidly by scoring 12
points. In the end, the Lions played
solid defense and proceeded to a
convincing 48-36 victory.
Two days later, the Behrend
squad was still at home and play
ing another conference match up,
this time against Pitt-Greensburg.
The Lions led most of the game and
were able to contain their opponent
by playing tenaciously on defense
and out rebounding their oppo
nents. At the half, Behrend led 24-
18.
The momentum of the game
changed late in the second half,
though, and Pitt-Greensburg sent
the game to overtime with the score
deadlocked at 55.
Coach Roz Fornari said, “At
the three minute mark they made a
couple of key plays and we started
to tighten up a little. We made a
couple of unfortunate errors and let
in them gain momentum and confi-
dence.” _
19 points, eight rebounds, Hairston
with 18 points, eight boards, and
Ponsoll
chipping in with 11 points
The Lions next traveled to
Oberlin and gave them their first
win of the season, 52-46. The
Behrend squad was on fire offen
sively crushing the Yeomen with 43
percent shooting from beyond the
arc as well as inside. The Yeoman
struggled with 33 percent field-goal
shooting in the first half and a made
none of the three attempted three
pointers in the first half.
However, the Lions’ lead was
temporary as Oberlin began to claw
back, scoring eventually 33 points
in the second half compared to
Behrend's 16. Oberlin’s first lead
of the night came with 4:13 left to
go, 45-44. Going on to steal the
game away. Curren led the team
with 14 points and six boards, and
was the only Lion to reach double
figures.
The Lions looked as though
they were in complete control
against the Pitt-Greensburg Bob-
main weapon,
AMCC
“They were able to come back be
cause we failed to execute on the offen
sive end and rebound on the defensive
end,” said Krumpe.
In overtime, the game stayed very
tight. There was very little scoring un
til the final minute and then both teams
made important shots to keep the game
competitive. Behrend sealed the victory,
though, with two key layups from guard
Carly Cochran. The final score was 64-
63, once again in favor of the Lions.
Krumpe, who had 12 points and 12
rebounds, said, “Overtime was just
crazy. No one scored many points until
the last minute, and suddenly everyone
was scoring. Carly was clutch for us by
making two layups in the last 30 sec
onds, and then I blocked the potential
game winner. It was possibly the best
overtime game I've ever played in.”
Aside from extending Behrend’s win
ning streak, the victory had added im
portance because it launched the Lions
to first place in the AMCC with a 5-1
record. It also boosted the team’s con
fidence after a tough start to the new
year.
“It’s definitely a morale booster to win
these last few conference games after we
started so poorly in January,” said
Krumpe. “Now we know we can beat
anyone in the AMCC if we play hard
enough.”
Fornari added, “Our players are see
ing the benefit of improvement and
teamwork. They are working hard in
practice and the wins are a result of pre
paredness and a higher confidence
level.”
Although the squad is definitely play
ing at a superior level, the players and
their coach know that they can improve.
“We will continue working on our de-
cats as they took an early 20-11 lead
with 10 minutes remaining in the first
half. Behrend paced the first half with
a steady flow of shooting before tak
ing a cushioning 43-24 lead at the half.
At and this point it looked as though
Behrend had it all in control. Half of
the fans in the Junker Center left dur
ing the second half because of the
sloppy performance of both teams.
The Lions squandered their lead to
5 with 31.6 seconds left to go with a
score of 69-64.
A three-pointer by the Bobcats with
25.2 seconds tightened the score even
more with the Lions up 71-67.
Casey Ponsoll finalized the score
making two free throws ending the
game 75-67.
James Curren led the team again with
22 points followed by Tom Lulich and
Hairston with 11 each.
Penn State Altoona will visit
Behrend this Saturday followed by
what could be a tight game against No.
1 conference rival Pitt-Bradford on
Wednesday.
Scott Soltis, Sports Editor
cision making,” Fornari said. "We
struggle with making the right pass or
taking the right shot in the offense. De
fensively we will keep improving on our
individual and team defense and boxing
“We need to execute better on offense.”
added Krumpe. "It's our defense that is
pulling out these wins for us. If we can
get the two of them to work together at
the same time, it'll be great.”
Coming up next for the Lions is an
other important conference game at home
against Penn State-Altoona on Saturday,
at 2:(X) p.m. The Behrend team knows
that to continue the w in streak they will
have to continue to play with intensity
for the entire game.
"To beat Altoona again, we need to
play hard defense for 40 minutes. We
can’t play well for just half the game and
expect to win. Good execution on of
fense combined with hard defense should
give us the w in," said Krumpe.
Now that Behrend is playing its best
ball of the season. Fornari recognizes that
this is the team's best chance to capital -
ize on its success.
"They have a great opportunity ahead
of them and they only have eight games
left before conference playoff." said
Fornari.. “Knowing you have so few
games and only four weeks left of your
season makes you play w ith a little more
urgency and focus.”