Penn State DuBois Men’s Basketball hosted their first PSUAC game of the year Tuesday night, as they took on visiting Penn State Beaver. Both young teams looking to keep their winning seasons into conference play, and both teams still with plenty of energy at this early stage of the season. This made for some fast paced play as DuBois and Beaver battled back and forth.
The first five minutes of play were neck and neck, but still a slow scoring affair. Then Beaver went on a 20-3 run that lasted until five and a half minutes were left in the first half. With 4 turnovers during that stretch, and getting no good looks from the field, DuBois continued to fight. Beaver took full advantage though, and made their run.
Finally, Dylan Huey (Punxsutawney, PA) turned it up for DuBois with a few good shots, and some big rebounds. Brandon Bernhardt (Milford, NJ) added a few key rebounds and a quick bucket as well to start leading the charge for DuBois. With only 6 seconds on the clock, Mekhi Willis (Landstuhl, Germany) had a big steal and bucket to lift DuBois spirits. Huey’s six rebounds and 10 points in the first half kept DuBois close enough to be in it, and they were still outrebounding Beaver by four.
Although down by 15 at the half, DuBois play was much better than the score was reflecting, and they were ready to prove it in the 2nd half. With Huey still letting his presence known down low, the rest of the DuBois squad starting pitching in. Bernhardt turned up his offensive power with a couple 3-point field goals, and Cole Morris (Rimersburg, PA) started adding his own offensive flow to the game.
A couple of missed opportunities however, led to some big gains for Beaver with John Foster hitting a couple of three’s late in the game. DuBois kept gaining slowly, but by the end it was too little too late. With time winding down, DuBois would see no light at the end of this tunnel, and would take the loss to start conference play, 77-55.
Huey ended the night for DuBois with 14 points and nine rebounds. Bernhardt dropped in 14, and Morris put up 13 points of his own for DuBois.
Foster led all scorers with 22, and Jeremy Redwine added 20 points and 12 rebounds to help Beaver grab the road win.
