Tartans Late Run Not Enough in Setback at Penn State Behrend

(ERIE, Pa.) - The Carnegie Mellon University men's basketball team traveled north to play the Lions of Penn State Behrend on Wednesday, January 2 and dropped a 66-53 decision.  The Tartans move to 2-8 while the Lions are now 7-4.

Carnegie Mellon grabbed a 12-8 lead at the 12:36 mark of the first half when senior Andre Moore (Bowie, Md./Archbishop Spalding) drained his second trey of the game.  Over the next three minutes, Behrend used a 10-2 run to claim an 18-14 edge.

Behrend's run was extended to 21-6 as the Lions grabbed an 11 point lead, 29-18, with 3:32 left in the half.  The Lions maintained control the rest of the first stanza leading 31-22 at the break.  Behrend shot 54% from the floor after twenty minutes while the Tartans shot 38% and were led by Moore's 10 points and five rebounds.

The Tartans came out of the locker room and scored 10 of the first 14 points of the half while cutting the Lions lead to 35-32 on a three-point bucket by junior Asad Meghani (Dallas, Texas/The Greenhill School) at the 16:03 mark.  Behrend answered the Tartans spurt by scoring the next 11 points pushing its lead to 46-32 and eventually took the largest lead of the game at 51-35 at the halfway point of the half.

Carnegie Mellon did not go away cutting the Lions lead back to single digits (57-49) on a trey by Meghani with 3:09 to play, but that was as close as the Tartans came.

For the game, Carnegie Mellon shot 42% from the field to the Lions 54% while the Tartans held the edge on the boards 29-27.  Moore and Meghani led the Tartans with 11 points each.   Moore tied a career-high with a game-high seven rebounds.

Russ Conley led the Lions with a game-high 22 points while Nick DeLisio finished the game with 13 points.

Carnegie Mellon will start UAA play on Saturday, January 5, when Case Western Reserve University travels to Pittsburgh for a 5:00 p.m. tip.