The Lancaster Bible men's basketball team wasted little time getting acclimated to 2016 as the Chargers hit seven of their first eight shots and took a commanding 16-0 lead over Penn College just 3:42 into Thursday night's contest and cruised to a 109-52 victory in Williamsport, Pa. The win improves the Chargers to 9-0 overall and 3-0 in North Eastern Athletic Conference play. As of Thursday night, the Chargers remain one of just six unbeaten teams in NCAA Division III.

How it Happened: Lancaster Bible's CJ Dunston opened the scoring with a dunk 36 seconds into the game, Bryce Williams followed with back-to-back 3-pointers, a jumper by Kurt Keltner and a fastbreak dunk from Dondre Perry on the next two possessions gave the Chargers a 12-0 lead 2:41 into the contest and the visitors were off and running.

Williams would convert another basket on the next possession and Dunston capped the scoring run like he opened it as he slammed home a dunk with 16:18 to play in the first half to give the Chargers a 16-0 lead. Penn College finally got onto the board at the 14:30 mark, but the Wildcats could do nothing to stop the Chargers' offensive attack. Dunston's layup with 8:10 remaining in the first half gave the Chargers a 38-9 lead and Williams' third 3-pointer of the half stretched the lead to 32 at 43-11 with 6:38 to play in the first half.

Sophomore Ty Constein put the finishing touches on the Chargers' biggest half of the season as he converted a layup with three seconds remaining in the half to give Lancaster Bible a 64-19 halftime advantage.

After opening the first half on a 16-0 run, the Chargers did even better in the second as Lancaster Bible scored the first 19 points of the second half and took an 83-19 lead with 15:56 remaining in the game. With the bench cleared midway through the second half, many of Lancaster Bible's players collected significant minutes on Thursday night, including Tyler Baughman who knocked down a jumper with 5:09 remaining to give the Chargers a 103-45 lead. 

By the Numbers: Dunston and Williams each finished with a team-high 18 points...Williams was 7-of-12 from the floor, including 4-of-8 from beyond the arc in just 18 minutes, while Dunston was 7-of-9 from the field and added six rebounds and three steals...Sophomore Herbie Brown added 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting and also had eight rebounds...Junior Kurt Keltner had 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting and senior Dondre Perry was the fifth player in double figures with 12 as he was a perfect 5-of-5 from the floor...Lancaster Bible shot 64.7 percent (24-of-37) in the first half and finished 42-of-76 from the field....Senior Jon Bird also had eight points and seven boards and Baughman finished with three points and two rebounds.

The Coach Says: On the team's first game since Christmas Break..."Overall I was very pleased with our play tonight, especially coming out of a long break," Lancaster Bible Head Coach Zach Filzen said. "I thought we executed well and we have gotten better over the past week or so since we came back. Our practices have been productive."

On Thursday's game..."We played well together and made the extra pass," Filzen said. "They played more zone against us than any team this season and we did a good job with that and handled it well. Our pace helped us in transition and we were able to get some good looks. I was happy with the way the team paid attention to the details on both ends of the floor. The team was sharp tonight."

On Saturday's opponent Penn St. Abington..."We have to be ready to go on Saturday against an Abington team that is gaining some confidence and has won two straight games," Filzen said. 

Extra! Extra!: The 57-point victory is the seventh-largest win in program history...Perry's 12 points give him 957 for his career and he is just 43 points away from becoming the 22nd player in program history to score 1,000 points...Lancaster Bible has won 13 straight games dating back to last season...The Chargers are averaging 98.8 points per game this season and have scored 100 or more points in a game four times this season.

Up Next: Lancaster Bible hosts Penn St. Abington on Saturday at 1 p.m.