New Kensington, PA- The Lions hosted Penn State Lehigh Valley earlier today at the Athletic Center for their second PSUAC matchup in as many days. New Kensington came in looking to turn things around after losing their last five games.
Lehigh Valley led for most of the highly contested opening half. Both teams were able to get things going offensively, trading buckets throughout the first 20 minutes on their way to 36-31 score at the break.
The Lions opened the second half on a 6-0 run to take their first lead since the 9-minute mark of the first half. Lehigh Valley responded with a 13-5 run of their own, going up 49-42 with just under 13 minutes to play.
New Kensington stayed resilient and slowly chipped away down the stretch, retaking a 63-61 lead on a layup by guard Sophomore Andre Hayes (Ashburn, VA) with just over three minutes remaining. The Lions locked things down the rest of the way, allowing just one more field goal on their way to a 72-64 conference victory.
Four Lions scored in double digits on the day, led by big men senior forward Joseph Dusabe (Toronto, ON) and sophomore forward Jovan Kojic's (Subotica, Serbia) 13 points apiece. Sophomore guard Aubrey Feaster (Buffalo, NY) added 12 points and 7 rebounds, while fellow guard Andre Hayes added 10 points on 4 of 5 shooting.
New Kensington had a very good night in the paint, outrebounding Lehigh Valley 43-23 and scoring 15 second chance points. The Lions bench had an enormous impact on the game, outscoring Lehigh Valley 34-13 in that department.
The Lions will look to stack some wins together as they travel to Penn State Beaver this Wednesday, January 18th for another PSUAC showdown.
Stay tuned at PSNKathletics.com.
