It wasn't pretty, but with Wednesday night kicking off North Eastern Athletic Conference play, the mantra of "A win is a win," begins to apply and the Lancaster Bible men's basketball team will take the win, despite its ugliness. The Chargers erupted for 113 points, but a poor defensive effort kept them on their heels all night as they held on for a 113-103 victory over Penn St. Berks in Reading, Pa. The victory moves the Chargers to 5-0 overall and 1-0 in conference play, while the Nittany Lions are now 0-5 and 0-1 in NEAC action.

How it Happened: Both teams shot the ball well early in the first half as the Chargers held a 13-8 lead just 4:16 into the contest. After both teams went scoreless over multiple possessions, the Nittany Lions took a 14-13 lead thanks to six straight points, the final two coming on a layup by Baba Waples with 12:55 to play in the opening half. 

The teams began shooting well again midway through the half and after Penn St. Berks took a 23-19 lead, the Chargers used a 12-4 run to take a four-point lead as CJ Dunston put the exclamation point on the run by slamming home two of his 10 points. Neither team could pull away in the first half, though the Chargers matched their biggest lead of the game just before halftime as Jon Bird's layup with 33 seconds to play gave Lancaster Bible a 57-47 edge at the break.

After scoring 18 points in the first half, Lancaster Bible's Bryce Williams stayed hot early in the second half as he scored nine of the Chargers' first 13 points of the second half to help give the visitors a 70-53 lead with 17:09 to play. Penn St. Berks would trim its deficit to 11 a few minutes later at 72-61, but another huge scoring run by the Chargers, this time to the toon of a 15-2 offensive spree, put Lancaster Bible up 87-63 with 12:18 to play. 

The Chargers' lead stayed at 24 for another minute, but Penn St. Berks would not go away and cut its deficit to nine just over three minutes later at 91-82. 

Lancaster Bible would regain a 14-point lead just minutes later and although the Nittany Lions trailed by as few as seven with 3:57 to play, Williams went 6-for-6 from the free throw line in the last 2:14 to help the Chargers seal the victory.

By the Numbers: Williams finished with 33 points on 8-of-18 shooting, including 4-of-10 from beyond the arc...Williams was a perfect 13-for-13 from the free throw line and his 33 points are the most in a game for a Lancaster Bible player since Drew Karschner scored 37 points during the 2006-07 season...Senior Dondre Perry had 25 points on 11-of-16 shooting and sophomore Herbie Brown chipped in with a career-high 15 points...Dunston finished with his aforementioned 10 points and also pulled down nine rebounds...Kurt Keltner added eight points and a team-high 11 boards and Jon Bird was the other Lancaster Bible player in double figures with 11 points...The Chargers shot 37-of-76 (48.7 percent) from the floor.

The Coach Says: "It's great to learn with a win and not a loss, but the team knows tonight was not a great performance," Lancaster Bible Head Coach Zach Filzen said. "I'm not overly happy with the way we played, especially defensively. We couldn't keep the ball in front of us and didn't communicate very well which is very frustrating. I thought we did some things well offensively, but still need to move the ball better than we did tonight. Like I said, it's great to learn with a win, just like we did with the season-opener at Elizabethtown, but like that experience, the team knows we need to play better and they did that after the Elizabethtown game at the Messiah Tournament, so we're hoping that happens again on Saturday. We need to have two good practices on Thursday and Friday and prepare for a tough game with Bryn Athyn on Saturday."

Extra! Extra!: Lancaster Bible is now 9-5 all-time against Penn St. Berks and has won the last six meetings against the Nittany Lions...The 113 points scored are tied for the sixth-most in program history and are the most since the Chargers scored 113 against Washington Bible on Nov. 28, 2006...Since the beginning of the 2013-14 season, the Chargers are now 34-3 in NEAC play...Lancaster Bible has won its last 11 games away from Horst Athletic Center dating back to last season...The last time the Chargers lost a road or neutral site game was Jan. 31, 2015 at Gallaudet.

Up Next: Lancaster Bible hosts Bryn Athyn on Saturday at 1 p.m. Live video of the contest can be seen here: LIVE VIDEO