The Lancaster Bible men's basketball team celebrated the start of Christmas Break with its eighth straight victory on Friday night as the Chargers hammered Mount Aloysius, 99-56 at Horst Athletic Center. The victory improves the Chargers to 8-0 this season, while the Mounties dropped to 4-6. 

How it Happened: Lancaster Bible took control of the game immediately as the Chargers opened the contest on an 11-0 run that featured five points from junior Kurt Keltner. The Mounties scored their first bucket of the game 4:35 into the contest and actually found some offensive rhythm over the next minute and cut their deficit to five at 13-8 after back-to-back 3-pointers from Arin Wade and Chad Eisenhuth. 

Lancaster Bible regained an eight-point advantage at 20-12 thanks to a jumper from senior Jordan Mellinger with 10:21 to play in the first half, but a Dillon Bender layup 59 seconds later cut Mount Aloysius' deficit to six at 20-14. From there however, the Lancaster Bible defense turned up the pressure and the offense took care of business on the other end of the floor as the Chargers used a 22-2 run over the next eight minutes to open a 26-point lead with 1:35 to play in the half.

The 22-2 scoring run began with a Bryce Williams 3-pointer and was quickly followed with a layup from Dondre Perry. The Chargers regained their 11-point advantage on the next possession as CJ Dunston put his hand into a passing lane and stole the ball on the defensive end of the floor and raced down the court all alone and threw down a reverse slam that sent the crowd to its feet. 

Lancaster Bible forced six turnovers during the scoring run, most of which led to easy buckets on the other end of the floor. Sophomore Herbie Brown capped the run with a jumper in the paint and the Mounties finally broke the run with a free throw from Eisenhuth with 1:26 remaining in the half. Another 3-pointer from Keltner and two free throws from Dunston produced the halftime score of 47-17 as Lancaster Bible closed the half on a 27-3 run.

The Chargers continued to build their lead early in the second half and doing most of the damage was senior center Jon Bird. Bird scored seven straight points for the Chargers midway through the second half as his two free throws with 13:12 remaining gave Lancaster Bible its biggest lead of the game at 65-29. 

Lancaster Bible's lead hit 40 points with 9:16 remaining in the game as Perry slammed home the first of back-to-back dunks for the Chargers to give the home team a 76-36 lead. Dunston followed on the next possession with his second dunk of the game off a great behind-the-back pass from Williams. 

The Chargers would lead by as many as 47 in the second half, which they did on two occasions, the first of which came on a fastbreak layup from senior Nick Monroe. Both teams emptied their benches in the final minutes and senior Marquis Boone hit 1-of-2 free throws with 48 seconds remaining to give the Chargers a 99-56 lead. 

By the Numbers: Lancaster Bible shot 40-of-83 (48.2 percent) from the field and took 30 more shots than Mount Aloysius which finished 21-of-53 (39.6 percent) from the floor...Lancaster Bible held a 49-30 advantage on the glass, including a 16-4 edge in offensive rebounds...Bird finished with a career-high 17 points on 7-of-7 shooting from the floor and a 3-of-4 effort from the free throw line...Williams finished with 15 points and three assists...Dunston had 14 points, seven rebounds and six assists, while Keltner had 14 points and nine boards...Brown finished with 10 points and a career-high nine rebounds...Perry was the sixth and final Charger in double figures with 12 points...11 different Lancaster Bible players recorded at least one point...The 56 points allowed were the fewest the Chargers have given up all season.

The Coach Says: On playing well despite it being Finals Week at Lancaster Bible and the team having a week off since its last game..."I thought we responded well," Lancaster Bible Head Coach Zach Filzen said. "We gave the guys some time off at the beginning of the week and had some great practices on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We spent a lot of time talking about defense after a poor effort last Friday and the guys did a great job of turning good defense into easy buckets on the offensive end. Teams don't normally have great practices and games during Finals Week, but I thought the guys did a great job of balancing school and basketball this week."

On the team's defense..."For us to keep having success, we are going to need to play solid defense," Filzen said. "We can't just think we are going to outscore everyone, that's not going to happen. We have to keep focusing on the details and when we do, that generally leads to easy buckets on the other end."

On the play of Jon Bird Friday night..."Jon was phenomenal tonight," Filzen said. "He had energy, great effort, got after loose balls and ran the floor incredibly well. Guys like Bird, Ty Constein and Billy Livezey really gave us a spark tonight and competed well all night."

On things Filzen liked in the first semester..."I liked the team's willingness to embrace a new system," Filzen said. "The guys have bought in and have been mature enough to learn from some of our games where we haven't played very well, but still won."

On things Filzen thinks the team needs to continue to work on..."We obviously need to be more consistent defensively," Filzen said. "And I know this is crazy because we are scoring lots of points, but our offensive efficiency can still be better. We need to keep working on our halfcourt offense and make sure we are finding ways to get guys open."

On playing 17 games over seven weeks in January and February..."It's a player's dream," Filzen said. "We've had lots of good practices, but I think the guys are ready to start playing more games. Our pace of play won't change in the second half of the season and the guys are hungry to accomplish the goals they have set."

Extra! Extra!: Lancaster Bible is now 6-14 against Mount Aloysius in the all-time series...In its three home games this season, Lancaster Bible has held halftime leads of 15, 34 and 30...The Chargers are 15-1 during the first semester over the past two seasons...Perry now has 945 points for his career...Bird's previous career-high for points in a game was 16 which he recorded on Feb. 2, 2013 vs. SUNY Cobleskill...Lancaster Bible's 83 shots taken are a season high.

Up Next: Lancaster Bible is back in action on Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016 when the Chargers head to Williamsport, Pa. to face Penn College at 5 p.m.