Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski Mount Aloysius' Will Hagwood is cornered by Penn State Altoona's Kaden Claar (left) and Kal-El Gentles.

By Michael Boytim

mboytim@altoonamirror.com

On a night Sideline Cancer was raising money for his mother, Penn State Altoona’s Kal-El Gentles scored 18 of his 21 points in the second half to help the Lions hold off an upset bid from Mount Aloysius in an 89-83 victory on Wednesday at Adler Arena.

“It’s amazing,” Penn State Altoona coach David McGreal said. “His mom surprised him. He didn’t even know she was coming. For him to carry us toward the end made it even more special, I’m sure for him and his mom. The goal is always to get the win, but when you’re able to do something special for one of your family members, and that player rises to the occasion, that makes it even better.”

Penn State Altoona improved to 12-8 overall but more importantly 8-3 in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference, which currently has the Lions in second place.

“Pretty much every one of our games has come down to the wire,” McGreal said. “With Mount, records are out the window. It’s a cliche, but they are going to give us their best effort every time. They are a way more talented team than their record shows.”

The Lions opened the game by scoring the first 10 points highlighted by a pair of Kaden Claar 3-pointers.

Claar, a Portage graduate, finished with 20 points.

“It’s great to be stacking up some wins,” Claar said. “It means a lot to us after the season we had last year. It’s been a nice bounce-back season. It feels great.”

Joining Claar in the starting lineup was his former teammate at Portage, Mason Kargo, and Johnstown graduate Dwayne Jones, who was honored before the game for scoring his 1,000th career point at Pitt-Greensburg on Jan. 29.

Jones became just the ninth player in program history to reach that milestone.

“They are really good local kids,” McGreal said. “Kargo and Claar were both all-staters at Portage, and Dwayne Jones out of high school was getting looks at Division II schools. The fact they stayed home and came back means a lot to me. I would love to continue to build a D6 pipeline, but for us to compete at the level we want to, we do have to find some other people from Texas and whatnot, but I love the way Kaden and Mason play. It’s a testament to Mason’s dad (Mustangs head coach Travis Kargo) at Portage, and same with Dwayne. We’re blessed to have him.”

Penn State Altoona maintained its 10-point lead into halftime, but Mount Aloysius finally tied the game at 58 with 12:23 to play on a De’Von Haggans three-point play. Haggans is one of the leading scorers in the conference and finished with a game-high 23 points.

“Two teams so close, maybe 20 minutes away,” Claar said. “A lot of the guys know each other, so you can say it’s a rivalry. It always comes down to the wire.”

With Penn State Altoona leading by just one, Gentles scored 11 straight points for the Lions to keep them ahead, and then Kargo took a charge with 5:53 remaining — a play he was well known for in Portage — before Gentles scored four more points to make it 78-71.

Mount Aloysius cut it to 82-80 with about a minute to play, but Kargo and Claar went 4-for-4 from the line in the final 26 seconds to seal the win.

“It’s pretty unique (playing college basketball with a high school teammate),” Claar said. “A lot of teams don’t have that experience. It’s pretty cool to have that experience between starters.”

MOUNT ALOYSIUS (83): Haggans 9-16 5-7 23. Hagwood 3-11 2-5 10, Cummings 3-6 0-0 6, Tinch 4-10 3-4 14, Busbee 4-10 1-3 11, Hudgins 1-1 0-0 3, McClain 4-4 4-4 14, Morrow 1-1 0-0 2, Woodland 0-1 0-0 0, Snow 0-0 0-0 0. Totals — 29-60 15-23 83.

PENN STATE ALTOONA (88): Frye 8-14 3-4 20, Jones 2-8 4-8 8, Kargo 2-4 4-4 10, Claar 6-11 5-6 20, Gentles 7-11 7-9 21, Charles 4-10 0-1 10, Martinez 0-1 0-0 0, Cage 0-0 0-0 0, Johansson 0-0 0-0 0, Bruce 0-0 0-0 0. Totals — 29-59 23-32 89.

Halftime score: Penn State Altoona, 48-38. 3-point goals: Mount Aloysius 10-22 (Tinch 3-4, Busbee 2-5, Hagwood 2-7, McClain 2-2, Hudgins 1-1, Haggans 0-1, Cummings 0-1, Woodland 0-1); Penn State Altoona 8-22 (Claar 3-6, Kargo 2-3, Charles 2-5, Frye 1-3, Gentles 0-2, Jones 0-3). Assists: Mount Aloysius 16 (Haggans/Hagwood/Cummings, 3 each); Penn State Altoona 14 (Jones 5). Rebounds: Mount Aloysius 31 (Haggans 8); Penn State Altoona 37 (Jones 11).

Records: Mount Aloysius (5-16, 3-9 in AMCC); Penn State Altoona (12-8, 8-3 in AMCC).

Officials: Michael Mals, Chris Coccagna, John Nepsha.