ALTOONA, Pa. – La Roche men's basketball saw its 13-game winning streak come to an end on Saturday afternoon as the Redhawks were stunned by a Penn State Altoona team playing for its postseason life, 80-73.
Despite the defeat, La Roche is the AMCC Regular Season Champions, winning the head-to-head tiebreaker thanks to sweeping Penn State Behrend, who finished tied in AMCC play with 14-4 records.
After a three-pointer by the Lions opened the game, an 11-2 run by the Redhawks followed, giving La Roche an 11-5 lead with 13:58 remaining in the opening half.
The Redhawks held the lead until 9:32 remained, when Altoona ties the game at 14 and a run of 8-0 when down 14-10 to take the edge at 18-14 with 8:13 to go in the half.
La Roche would only come within two points after the ensuing basket made it 18-16 and the Lions would go on to grow a lead as high as 10 and not allow the Redhawks to come within any more than four the remainder of the half, taking a 37-32 lead into the locker room.
Out of the break, La Roche saw the deficit only continue to grow in the first 7:39 of play in the second half, trailing by a score of 52-39 at that point.
Unfortunately, for the Redhawks, the rest of the second half was an uphill battle, never being able to come any closer than within six, as Altoona sealed the victory.
For the game, La Roche finished going 26-for-70 (37.1%) from the floor and 8-for-31 (25.8%) from three. From the foul line, they capitalized on 13 of 19 attempts (68.4%).
On the other side, the Lions finished 26-for-62 (41.9%) from the field, 7-for-21 (33.3%) from deep, while going 21-for-32 (65.6%) from the foul line.
The Redhawks had four players end the night in double figures with Joe Starzynski netting the team high.
Starzynski put together another double-double with 24 points and 11 rebounds, adding three blocks and a pair of steals to his stat line.
Jerique Walker shined off the bench, scoring 17 to go with three rebounds and a pair of assists, while Bryce Epps scored 15 points, five rebounds, two assists and four steals.
Michael Brooks rounded out the double-digit scorers with 11 points.
La Roche still earned the top seed and home-court advantage in the AMCC Tournament and return to the floor on Friday, Feb. 23 at 6 p.m. in the first semifinal game. The Redhawks will take on either #4 Pitt-Greensburg or #5 Pitt-Bradford in that matchup.