The Lancaster Bible men's basketball team won its final regular season road contest on Tuesday night as the Chargers defeated Penn College, 75-62 in Williamsport, Pa. The Chargers conclude the road portion of their schedule with a 11-2 record and are now 21-2 overall and 15-1 in North Eastern Athletic Conference play. Lancaster Bible needs to win just one of its final two regular season games this weekend to clinch the NEAC South Division and be the host of the NEAC Final Four on February 28 and March 1. 

On Tuesday, the Chargers began the game on a 5-0 run, but Penn College quickly responded with a 14-4 run and took a 14-9 lead with 12:15 remaining in the 1st half. Lancaster Bible finally woke up over the next three minutes and took its first lead at 18-16 on a layup from Naheer Mirza with 9:02 to play. 

"We got off to a really slow start which was sort of weird because had a ton of open shots, we were just missing them," Lancaster Bible Head Coach Marshall Tague said. "We got a boost from our bench when they went in. They started driving to the hoop and we started taking control of the game."

After Penn College tied the game at 18-18, Lancaster Bible used a 12-2 run over a 4:41 span to take a 30-20 lead and eventually took a 37-27 lead into halftime.

The teams traded baskets early in the second half, but a 3-pointer by Thomas Ross cut the Wildcats' deficit to five at 48-43 with 14:02 to play. Any chance of a comeback was quickly squashed by Lancaster Bible as the Chargers went on a 13-6 run over the next four minutes and opened up a 12 point lead at 61-48 with 9:52 to play. Lancaster Bible eventually led by as many as 20 in the second half as a layup from Herbie Brown with 6:50 to play gave the Chargers a 71-51 advantage. 

Junior CJ Dunston finished with a game-high 17 points on 8-of-10 shooting and he also added seven rebounds and three steals. Senior Albert Suniga added 13 points and four boards, while fellow seniorNaheer Mirza had 10 points and five assists. Jon Bird chipped in with eight points and seven rebounds as he played a season-high 22 minutes.

"This wasn't an easy one for us as we had two big games last weekend and we have two big games this coming weekend, but the guys turned it on when they had to and we did what we needed to do to get a victory tonight," Tague said.

Lancaster Bible will now turn its attention to the weekend when they host Gallaudet on Friday and Wilson on Saturday. Gallaudet gave Lancaster Bible its only NEAC loss of the year back on January 31 in Washington, D.C. as the Bison snapped the Chargers' 15-game winning streak that day. On Friday, the Chargers will look to return the favor as the Bison will enter Horst Athletic Center on a program-best nine-game winning streak. Gallaudet won on Tuesday night at Bryn Athyn and broke a 98-year old program record with its ninth straight victory. 

"The motivation for this weekend is built in each of the guys," Tague said. "We all know how big these games are, especially Friday and the guys want it pretty bad."

As stated above, because of Lancaster Bible's two-game lead over Gallaudet, the Chargers need to win just one of their final two games to clinch the NEAC South Division and because the Chargers defeated every team in the NEAC North Division, Lancaster Bible would be the host of the NEAC Final Four.

Friday's game is scheduled to tip-off at 7 p.m., while Saturday's Senior Day tilt with Wilson is slated to begin at 3 p.m.

Notes:
-Lancaster Bible's 11 road wins this season are the most in school history.

-A win in one of its final two games would tie the Lancaster Bible mark for wins in a season that was set last year.