READING, Pa. – The Gallaudet University men's basketball team held off a pesky Penn State-Berks squad 90-86 on Sunday evening on the road at the Beaver Community Center to pick up another North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) win.
Gallaudet (7-3, 4-1 NEAC) sits in second place in the conference behind SUNY Cobleskill (4-6, 4-0) who is undefeated in the NEAC even though it lost the first six games of the season. The Bison win is the fifth in the past six games for the Buff and Blue.
The Bison were paced by junior forward Layton Seeber (Champaign, Ill.) who scored a career-high 25 points as he passed out 10 assists, grabbed eight rebounds and was nearly perfect shooting from the field. Seeber shot 80 percent (8-for-10) from the field, was a perfect 6-for-6 at the free-throw line and 3-for-3 from 3-point range. This was Seeber's second straight game with 10 assists and second double-double in his Bison career. Junior guard Tony Tatum (Gardendale, Ala.) was the second Bison to surpass 20 points as he finished with 21, seven rebounds, four assists and three steals. Sophomore forward Danny Kelly (Strongsville, Ohio) added 18 points and seven rebounds while junior forward Daniel Fava (Baltimore, Md.) made a team-high nine rebounds.
The Lions (3-6, 3-2) was led by Wanyae Hartsfield's 20 points as the team shot 46.6 percent from the field. Penn St.-Berks scored 30 points off 20 Gallaudet turnovers and its bench outscored Gallaudet's 35-27.
The lead changed hands three times in the first half and seven times in the second half. GU held an 80-77 lead late in the game and closed out the game hitting 8-of-11 shots from the charity stripe. The highlight of the final minute came when Kelly made a layup, was fouled, and hit the ensuing free throw for the three-point play to put Gallaudet up 84-79.
GU led for the majority of the first half before Hartsfield made a basket to give the Lions a 35-34 lead with 2:43 left before halftime. Penn St.-Berks took a 41-40 lead into the intermission.
The Bison are now off until the New Year when they open the second half of the schedule on the road against defending conference champion SUNYIT (3-7, 2-2) on Saturday, January 8, for a 3 p.m. conference game.