Tartans Run into Second Straight Hot Shooting Opponent in Loss at Penn State Behrend

(ERIE, Pa.) - The Carnegie Mellon University men's basketball team traveled to Erie, Pennsylvania on Saturday to play the Lion of Penn State Behrend and dropped an 81-72 contest. Carnegie Mellon is now 0-2 on the young season while it was the opener for Behrend.

Carnegie Mellon shot 50.0% (28-56) from the floor while Behrend converted 27-of-51 from the floor for 52.9%, but the home team shot 51.7% (15-29) from behind the arc to the Tartans 35.7% (5-14). It marks the second straight game that the Tartans opponent has shot 50% or better. The Tartans held a 46-20 advantage in points scored in the paint.

Junior Zach Howarth (Freehold, N.J./St. John Vianney) and senior Seth Henry (Fulton, Md./Reservoir) again led the Tartans in scoring with 23 and 20 points, respectively. Howarth ended the night converting 9-of-17 from the floor while Henry was 8-of-12. Henry led with a game-high nine rebounds as the Tartans held a 29-25 edge on the glass as a team.

Behrend jumped out to a 13-4 lead at the 14:31 mark of the first half after making 5-of-10 from the floor to start. The lead grew to 23-11 six minutes later before Henry connected on a pair of buckets sandwiched with a trey by Howarth to cut the deficit to 23-18 with 7:16 to play in the half. Behrend pushed its lead back to double figures two minutes later, but the Tartans didn't go away. Henry made it a five-point game at 32-27, but the Lions then closed the last four minutes of the half on an 11-4 run to take a 43-31 advantage at the break.

Carnegie Mellon scored seven straight points to cut the Behrend lead in half at 50-43 five minutes into the second frame. The Lions then score the next five points to reclaim their double figure lead and led by as many as 14 on multiple occasions. Like the first half, the Tartans didn't go away, as the Cardinal and Gray used a triple by junior Cooper Williams (Meriden, N.H./Kimball Union Academy) with 5:41 to play to make the score 71-63. Two minutes later a jumper by Howarth in the lane pulled the visitor's to within seven (72-65), but that was as close as the score came with the Lions answering by scoring seven straight.

Carnegie Mellon will open its home schedule on Tuesday, November 20 with an 8:00 p.m. tip against the University of Mount Union.