Lions Fall to Carnegie Mellon

PITTSBURGH, Pa. - The Penn State Behrend men's basketball team lost to Carnegie Mellon, 68-63 on Saturday night in non-conference action.

After leading for most of the game, the Lions (0-2) squandered a late lead and fell to the Tartans for their second straight loss to start the season.

Russ Conley (Transfer, PA/Reynolds) and Pat St. Andrews (State College, PA/State College) provided most of the offense by scoring 20 and 14 respectively.

Behrend started out strong holding a lead for the entire first half.  The Lions were up by as many as 11 in the opening half and held a 34-30 halftime lead.

With the second half underway, the Lions were able to increase their lead to nine by the halfway point.  Casey Courneen (Sewickley, PA/Quaker Valley) hit a three followed by a free-throw by Keith Wallace (Washington, DC/Central Tech) and Behrend seemed to be in control.

Over the next five minutes though, Carnegie Mellon would put together a 16-7 run and tie the game 56-all.  The Lions offense went cold and didn't score a point over the final three minutes. With 1:30 left to play, the Tartans would grab their first lead of the game on a three by Christian Manoli.  Carnegie Mellon hit four clutch free-throws to ice the game and hand Behrend the loss.

The Tartans held a 34-21 advantage on the boards which led to 16 second chance points to ignite the come from behind victory.

The Lions will be back in action on Tuesday for a non-conference match-up against Thiel. Game time is 7:30 p.m.