Men's Basketball defeats Lehigh Valley

Penn State Mont Alto Men's Basketball team has started the season with a 3-0 record.  This weekend Mont Alto hosted the John Benchoff Basketball Tip-Off Tournament.  The late John Benchoff is Penn State Mont Alto's winningest Men's Basketball Coach.  Benchoff's family was recognized before Mont Alto's game on Friday night.

Mont Alto and Lehigh Valley squared off at 8:00 p.m., with Mont Alto winning 104-85.

"Lehigh Valley came out on fire in the first half and shot a great percentage from the three-point range.  At this point I was very worried if we would have time to be able to stop their execution on offense," commented Head Coach Jack Schenzel.

Mont Alto went into halftime leading 57-46, with Welton recording 18 of his points in the first half.  They came out strong in the second half and kept the lead until the end in their first PSUAC conference match-up. 

"We're able to overcome their strong shooting performance by providing one of our own.  I really think that Lehigh Valley will be a strong player in the PSUAC this year.  Coach Ross has done a great job turning that program around in one year."

Mont Alto was led by sophomore, Sharif Welton who scored 22 points, while freshman, Jerome Evans added 18 points.   Jamaal Carter recorded 13 points, six rebounds and three steals.  Chad Smitz had seven rebounds.

"We had a very strong performance in Friday's game by several players off the bench including Sharif Welton and Jerome Evans.  This was a total team effort, we played solid game offensively from the start to the end.  We have a lot of work to do on the defensive end but I feel that the team works hard every day and will be able to bring out our defensive attitude out in the next several games," Coach Schenzel adds.