Erie, PA - The D'Youville Men's Basketball Team lost their first conference game of the season to the defending conference champs Penn St.-Behrend Wednesday evening by the score of 67-57.

Coming out strong in the first half, the Lions led D'Youville 18-9 just over 10 minutes into the game. Down by as many as 17, the Spartans went on a 9-1 scoring run to close out the first half with the score 29-20, Lions.

D'Youville came out swinging to being the second half by getting the score to 29-30, Penn St.-Behrend just under 3 minutes in. The Lions pulled away to take a 38-29 lead just under 2 minutes later. D'Youville battled back to be down by 2 with under 4 to go, but Penn State held off the Spartan run to win the game 67-57.

Fourth year Head Coach Earl Schunk was proud of how his team went in and played a tough team. "We played the defending champs in their own gym and were within a possession of taking the game," said Schunk.

Center Julian Reed (Cheektowaga, NY/Union-Endicott) led the team in scoring with 13 points. Junior Nate Sweetman (Johnstown, NY/Johnstown) pulled down a team high 9 rebounds and added 2 steals and 2 assists. Junior Jon Gemerek (Cheektowaga, NY/Depew) had 12 points to add to the team's total.

Coach Schunk feels that his team is heading in the right direction going forward. "We have to clean up a few things but we are definitely getting there," said Schunk.

The next game for the D'Youville Men's Basketball Team is Saturday, December 6th against Pitt.-Greensburg. The game will begin at 4pm in the College Center Gym following the women's game.