Penn State DuBois men roll into PSUAC Final Four

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

DuBOIS - The Penn State-DuBois men's basketball team secured its spot in the PSUAC Final Four with an impressive 94-61 victory over Penn State-Fayette Monday evening.
Senior guard Jovan Brown joined the program's 1,000-point club with a basket in the second half as Penn State-DuBois continued its rout over the Roaring Lions.
Brown is now the sixth player with over 1,000 career points at Penn State-DuBois, joining teammate Chris Dickison, who recorded his 1,000th career point last season, along with Rick Clark, and current assistant coaches Dylan Howard, Marcus Genevro and Josh Salter.
Penn State-DuBois pulled away from the Roaring Lions (12-14) midway through the first half in the quarterfinal contest.
The Nittany Lions used a 23-6 run over the final 9:27 of the first half to turn a tie game into a comfortable 40-23 advantage.
Woody Mitchell's 3-pointer broke a 17-all tie. That got things rolling as the home team took control from that point.
"At the end of the first half, I thought the players on our bench had tremendous energy and that picked our level of intensity on the floor up considerably," Penn State DuBois head coach Dave Bennett said. "I thought that's what led to the run then it was all defense."
Mitchell made five of seven 3-pointers and finished with a team-high 21 points, including 16 in the second half.
Mitchell was one of four players that reached double figures. Dickison recorded 19 points and 12 rebounds and Brown, who sunk eight of 10 shots from the floor, ended with 18. Kai Ahmad chipped in 12.
Both teams had players hampered by foul trouble early. Penn State-Fayette's leading scorer, David Winns, picked up three fouls midway through the first half.
The Roaring Lions had trouble replacing his presence down low. Point guard James Pratt was also in four trouble with four fouls at halftime.
"He (Winns) is a heck of a player and they are a really nice team," Bennett added. "To be honest, that's probably the best we've played all year.
For the Nittany Lions, Brown had three fouls in the first half as well. But Penn State-DuBois picked up the slack with him on the bench.
After Williams' 3-pointer gave the Nittany Lions a 20-17 advantage, Dickison followed with back-to-back baskets as Penn State-DuBois started to pull away. Dickison recorded eight points during that stretch.
In the second half, Penn State-DuBois exploited the Roaring Lions' defense with several high-percentage baskets.
The Nittany Lions were 56 percent (18 of 32) from the field in the second half, including five of eight from behind the arc.
A 3-pointer by Penn State-Fayette's Tyler VanOlst cut his team's deficit to 15 points, but that's as close as the Roaring Lions got to the lead.
Penn State-DuBois used a 14-3 rally at one point in about a three and a half minute span to increase its lead. Mitchell's 3-pointer from the corner capped the run, giving his team a 68-38 lead.
Then Brown reached the career milestone about a minute and a half later as he floated a shot over a defender for his 1,000th career point and a 72-44 lead for his team with 7:57 remaining.
"We hadn't told him that he was even close," Bennett said. "I told him with two points to go. He's been a great player for us and he's worked really hard. It's really nice for him to get that accomplishment."
Winns was the only player to reach double figures for the Roaring Lions, who entered the game averaging the second-most points per game (77.2) as a team in the PSUAC.
Winns finished with 23 points.
Penn State-DuBois (19-7) will play Friday night at the Penn State Mont Alto campus. The Nittany Lions await the winner of Penn State-York (16-6) and Penn State-Brandywine (12-13).
"Either game is going to be very tough," Bennett added. "We are just looking forward to playing playoff basketball."

Reported by Bryan Swan, C-E Sports Writer. Email: bswan@thecourierexpress.com