The Lancaster Bible men's basketball team won its fourth straight game on Friday night as the Chargers put on a defensive clinic en route to a 79-42 thrashing of SUNY Polytechnic in Utica, N.Y. The victory improves the Chargers to 19-2 overall and 13-1 in North Eastern Athletic Conference play. 

Lancaster Bible opened Friday's game on an 18-7 run over the first 6:19 as Albert Suniga's 3-pointer capped the run. A SUNY Polytechnic timeout followed the bucket, but it only delayed the inevitable as the Chargers opened a lead of 21 points on two separate occasions later in the first half. Lancaster Bible shot 47 percent (17-of-36) in the first half and took 17 more shots than SUNY Polytechnic as the Chargers grabbed six offensive rebounds to the Wildcats' one in the opening 20 minutes.

It went from bad to worse in the second half for the home team as the Wildcats had just four field goals the entire half. SUNY Polytechnic scored on its first two possessions of the second half and got a layup from Maverick Hodge with 14:49 to play to cut the deficit to 21 at 51-30, but the Wildcats would not score another bucket until De'ondray Tape made a layup with 2:06 to play. Over the 12:43 span, the Chargers outscored SUNY Polytechnic, 22-9 and led by as many as 34 points. For the half, SUNY Polytechnic was 4-of-22 from the floor and 12-of-21 from the free throw line.

The Chargers meanwhile were led by junior CJ Dunston who had a perfect shooting night as he was 4-of-4 from the floor and 6-of-6 from the free throw line en route to 15 points. Dunston added eight rebounds and two blocks as the Chargers improved to 9-2 on the road this season. Junior Dondre Perry added 14 points, while senior Naheer Mira had nine points and three assists. Junior Jordan Mellinger added three points, three rebounds and a season-high six steals.

Lancaster Bible held a 42-29 rebounding advantage and 14 of Lancaster Bible's 15 players recorded at least one point.

Lancaster Bible will play one of its biggest games of the season on Saturday as the Chargers face NEAC North Division leader SUNY Cobleskill in Cobleskill, N.Y. The winner of Saturday's game will have the inside track to hosting the NEAC Final Four as the host institution is determined by the winner of the regular season matchup of the two division winners. Both Lancaster Bible and SUNY Cobleskill currently hold two game leads in their respective division with four games to play. Saturday's game is slated to begin at 3 p.m.

Notes:
-Lancaster Bible leads the all-time series with SUNY Polytechnic, 3-2.

-Friday was the third time, and second straight game, Lancaster Bible has scored 79 points in a game this season.