The Lancaster Bible men's basketball team made history on Monday night as the Chargers completed a perfect regular season with a 98-72 victory over Penn College at Horst Athletic Center. Lancaster Bible finishes the regular season with a record of 25-0 and an 18-0 mark in North Eastern Athletic Conference play. The Chargers join Benedictine (Ill.) University as the only other men's basketball team across NCAA Division I, II and III to go undefeated during the regular season this year. 

How it Happened: Lancaster Bible junior Bryce Williams got the Chargers off and running early as he connected on two 3-pointers in the first 1:50 to give the Chargers an early 6-2 lead. Penn College (3-21, 3-15 NEAC) kept the game close though and eventually tied the game at 10-10 with 14:57 remaining in the first half. A jumper from Kevin Laurence-El three minutes later gave the Wildcats a 17-16 lead, but it would be their last lead as Lancaster Bible went on a 12-0 run over the next 4:12 to grab a 28-17 lead. A CJ Dunston alley-oop dunk from Williams highlighted the run as Lancaster Bible grabbed a lead it would never relinquish.

A three-point play from Marquis Delgado ended the run, but Lancaster Bible went on another big run, this time a 15-0 run over 4:43 and took a commanding 43-20 advantage with 2:11 to play in the opening half. Over nine minutes, Lancaster Bible used a 27-3 run to turn a 17-16 deficit into a 43-20 lead. 

After leading 49-22 at the half, Lancaster Bible maintained its 20+ point lead throughout the second half, and eventually took a 30-point lead thanks to a layup from Herbie Brown with 14:50 remaining in the game. A thunderous dunk from Dondre Perry gave the Chargers their largest lead at 39 points, 81-42, with 8:55 to play and Lancaster Bible eventually won 98-72 for its 29th consecutive victory dating back to last season.

By the Numbers: Lancaster Bible shot 40-of-84 (47.6 percent) from the field, while Penn College shot 26-of-61 (42.6 percent) from the floor...Lancaster Bible had six players in double figures, led by CJ Dunston,Jordan Mellinger and Herbie Brown who each had 15 points...Dunston added 12 rebounds, four assists and three steals, while Brown added six rebounds to his 15 points...Jon Bird chipped in with 13 points and six boards...Bryce Williams and Dondre Perry each had 12 points and Williams added three assists and five steals...Junior Kurt Keltner had just four points, but added eight assists and seven rebounds...Laurence-El led the Wildcats with 22 points in his final collegiate game.

The Coach Says: "Going undefeated is a heck of an accomplishment and I'm just so happy for the guys," Lancaster Bible Head Coach Zach Filzen said. "The hard work the guys have put in, the ups and downs of a season, this is just such a great thing for all of them. Now we have to build on it as we head towards the conference playoffs."

On Monday's game..."I thought we played together and moved the ball around well, which is really exciting to see because we have talked about that a lot lately and when we play like we did tonight offensively, we go to a different level and are tough to play against," Filzen said. 

On this weekend's NEAC Final Four..."Saturday's game will be a battle no matter who we play," Filzen said. "We have to be ready because both Wells and SUNY Polytechnic are good teams. We need to take one practice and one game at a time and cannot look ahead to anything else."

Extra! Extra!: Lancaster Bible is now 7-0 all-time against Penn College...The Chargers defeated the Wildcats, 109-52 earlier this season in Williamsport...Dating back to last season, Lancaster Bible has won 38 of its past 39 games...Bryce Williams is two points shy of 500 for the season...The Chargers had 477 assists in 25 games this season, or 19.08 assists per game...This weekend will be the third straight season the Chargers have hosted the NEAC Final Four.

Up Next: Lancaster Bible will play in the first semifinal on Saturday at 1 p.m...The Chargers will face the winner of Tuesday's quarterfinal between Wells and SUNY Polytechnic...Morrisville State, which won the NEAC North Division, will be in the second semifinal (3 p.m.) and will play the winner of Tuesday's NEAC South Division Quarterfinal between Penn St. Berks and Gallaudet...The semifinal winners will meet in the NEAC Final on Sunday at 12:30 p.m.