PSU Altoona misses shot to clinch home playoff road
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By Michael Boytim
mboytim@altoonamirror.com
The Penn State Altoona men's basketball team missed a chance to clinch hosting the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference playoffs Wednesday after an 86-81 loss to La Roche at Adler Arena.
The Lions handed the Redhawks their only conference loss earlier in the season, 87-77, on Jan. 26, but could not pull off the season sweep.
"They made shots, and we didn't," Penn State Altoona coach David McGreal said. "Sometimes basketball is just that simple. We had a lot of breakdowns defensively, and they were hitting their open shots tonight. When they get hot from 3, they are tough to beat. We just gave up too many easy looks. They shot 30 percent from the floor at their place, and tonight, they probably shot 60."
It was actually 49.2 percent, but the improved shooting was evident, especially down the stretch.
The Lions trailed by just one point after a Dwayne Jones free throw with 10:17 left, but after a Dominic Elliott basket for La Roche, a fan was ejected and threw his glasses onto the court in the direction of the officials. After a second pair of glasses hit the floor, the referees stopped the game and an announcement was made that if anything else was thrown on the court, PSU Altoona would be given a technical foul.
Shortly following the stoppage, La Roche went on a 13-6 run with a pair of 3-pointers and a traditional three-point play to go up by 10 and take control of the game with 3:15 to play.
"We have had a great season, especially in conference," McGreal said. "We won 10 in a row. We put ourselves in position to get a bye in the first round. We have goals, and one of the goals is to repeat as conference regular season champions like we did last year. We're going to need help now with them losing Saturday for that to happen."
PSU Altoona needs La Roche to lose at Alfred State on Saturday while the Lions must beat Pitt-Bradford. The Redhawks defeated Alfred State at home, 80-68, on Jan. 14.
Jordan Grayson and Michael Brooks each scored 18 points for La Roche. Savion Word led the Lions with 18 points, and Andruw Harman added 16 points and eight rebounds. Jones, a Johnstown graduate, finished with 11 points and eight rebounds.
"Our last three full regular seasons, we've had a really good run," McGreal said. "I think a lot of it has to do with the play we play -- it's fun. We play uptempo, we play fast. Also, we have a culture now where people know we're bringing good basketball players in. People are buying into the system. We had a great year last year with the regular season championship, and winning helps those things. We have a good following. We have a lot of guys that are fun to watch. It's great to see all these crowds, and I wish we could have won it for them."
More than 500 fans filled the arena Wednesday, and Word said the Lions had hosting the playoffs on their mind.
"It gives us a lot of fuel," Word said. "We wanted to host, because it would have been the first time we hosted in school history. But we're going to go there and the expectations don't change."
Despite the loss, PSU Altoona's win in January on the road proves it can beat La Roche on the road.
"We know we can beat them there," McGreal said. "That's a consolation of course, but when you work this hard and you're so close, you wish you could have taken care of business, but they just played better."
Altoona graduate P.J. Charles, who missed time with an injury this season, started and scored nine points with six rebounds and three assists.
"I'm very proud of my team," Word said. "We have gone through adversity and lost players, gained players when we needed them and I'm glad we're back in full before playoffs. We just have to have the mindset of one game, one step at a time."
Charles had a cheering section Wednesday.
"The arena, the atmosphere that Coach McGreal has built is unbelievable," said Altoona boys basketball coach Doug Pfeffer, who brought his team to watch Wednesday's game. "It's second to none. It's great for our kids to come and watch this. We brought the kids in to see some high-quality basketball in the first-class facility. What Coach McGreal has built up here is something special."
LA ROCHE (86): Darrell 7-16 2-2 17, Thomas 4-6 2-2 12, Pipilo 2-7 1-1 6, Grayson 6-12 2-2 18, Brooks 6-7 2-2 18, Elliott 1-3 0-0 2, Ross 1-4 1-2 4, Starzynski 3-6 3-4 9. Totals--30-61 13-15 86.
PENN STATE ALTOONA (81): Bush 3-13 1-2 9, Charles 4-10 1-1 9, Harman 5-12 4-4 16, Word 7-13 0-0 18, Hicks 3-10 0-0 6, Sheetz 1-2 0-0 3, Jones 4-7 2-4 11, White 0-3 0-0 0, McClellan 4-8 0-0 9, Gardner 0-1 0-0 0. Totals--31-79 8-11 81.
Halftime: La Roche, 34-32. 3-point goals: La Roche 13-33 (Brooks 4-4, Grayson 4-9, Thomas 2-3, Ross 1-4, Darrell 1-5, Pipilo 1-6, Starzynski 0-2); Penn State Altoona 11-32 (Word 4-7, Bush 2-6, Harman 2-7, Sheetz 1-2, McClellan 1-3, Jones 1-3, Hicks 0-1, Charles 0-1, White 0-2). Assists: La Roche 15 (Darrell 5); Penn State Altoona 16 (Harman 6). Rebounds: La Roche 39 (Darrell 10); Penn State Altoona 42 (Jones, Harman 8 each).
Officials: Michael Mals, Shane Snyder, Mark Schmidt. A--511.
Records: La Roche (17-7, 12-1 in AMCC); Penn State Altoona (15-8, 11-2 in AMCC).