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By Kevin Petrochko
For the Mirror
The aggressive defense of the Penn State Altoona men's basketball team in the first half propelled them to their fourth conference win on Wednesday night over Mount Aloysius, 97-63, in area collegiate action at the Adler Arena.
The Lions, who compete in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference, tallied 10 steals en route to a 47-27 halftime lead.
Penn State Altoona coach David McGreal lauded his team's strong defensive effort.
"That's something that we have been kind of hanging our hat on, on the defensive end this whole year," McGreal said. "We always usually start in the press to try and get some early momentum, early turnovers, and early baskets, and it worked really well tonight."
That paid dividends on the offensive end of the floor as sophomore forward Dwayne Jones and senior guard Saivon Word led all scorers with 22 and 18 points, respectively.
Jones, who used to play for Mount Aloysius, felt a little emotional playing against his former school but was happy with his team's defensive performance in the first half.
"We work hard on defense," he said. "The defense wins the game."
Word added four assists and a steal to high night's work. He was proud of the team's work in practice on defense.
"If we practice hard, we play hard in games," he said. "If we play around it in practice, then we come out slowly."
Word stressed the importance of defense in the game that helped the Nittany Lions improve to 8-7 overall and 4-1 in the AMCC.
"If we play good on defense, it leads to offense for us," he said. "We like to run in transition, and if we get stops on defense, that helps us in transition a lot. If we don't play defense, it's going to be a kill, because we have to dig down deep for stops."
McGreal was pleased with Word's performance against the Mounties, who fell to 4-12 overall and 1-5 in the AMCC.
"Right now, he's kind of our leading scorer, with PJ Charles still kind of nursing an injury," he said. "When he needs to score, he can score. When he needs to pass, he passes."
McGreal also lauded Word's effort on the defense, which has been there all season for the Lions.
"We talk about the defensive side Saivon himself is ninth in the nation in steals per game," McGreal said. "He really dictates things for us. He puts pressure on the ball and he's fast as lightning."
Mount Aloysius got 14 points Joel Lonigro, 13 from Will Hagwood and 11 from Ebone Junior.
Penn State Altoona is at Penn State Behrend this Saturday. The Mounties are at Alfred State on Saturday.
MOUNT ALOYSIUS (63): Ebone 5-10 1-2 11, Coronado 1-10 2-2 5, Hagwood 5-15 2-2 13, Johnson 2-2 1-2 5, Lonigro 5-12 2-7 14, Boland 0-1 0-0 0, Ramirez-Keller 1-1 0-0 2, R.Ibanez-Meinda 1-5 0-0 7, P. Ibanez-Medina 0-1 1-2 1, Morrow 2-5 1-3 5. Totals -- 24-64 10-20 63.
PENN STATE ALTOONA (97): Jones 9-14 4-5 22, Bush 3-8 0-0 6, Harman 6-10 0-0 14, Word 6-9 5-7 18, McClellan 3-7 0-0 7, Sheetz 3-5 0-0 8, Hicks 2-8 0-0 4, Jaroz 1-3 0-0 3, Colon-Lopez 0-0 0-0 0, Smith 0-1 2-2 2, Hedges 3-3 0-0 6, Mitchell 2-3 0-0 4, Gardner 1-4 0-2 3. Totals -- 39-75 11-16 97.
Halftime--PSU Altoona, 47-27. 3-point goals: Mount Aloysius 5-19 (Coronado 1-4, Hagwood 1-4, Lonigro 2-5, Boland 0-1, R. Ibanez-Medina 1-5); PSU 8-24 (Jones 0-2, Bush 0-2, Harman 2-2, Word 1-3, McClellan 1-4, Sheetz 2-4, Hicks 0-3, Jarosz 1-3, Gardner 1-1). Rebounds --Mount Aloysius 38 (2 tied with 8); PSU 47 (Jones 12). Assists -- Mount Aloysius 12 (Hagwood 5); PSU 12 (Word 4). Technical fouls -- Ebone.
Records: Mount Aloysius (4-12, 0-5 AMCC); PSU Altoona (8-7, 4-1 AMCC)