Altoona, PA – The D'Youville men's basketball team lost their second game to the Penn State-Altoona Lions this week, falling by the score of 96-71.

Altoona dominated the game early on, leading 12-0 just under two minutes into the game. The Spartans were able to get their offense back on track over the next few minutes, bringing their deficit to five after a pair of Jeremy VanDuluitgaarden (Verona, NY/Vernon-Verona-Sherrill) free throws about four minutes later. However, the Lions would push their lead up to 14 with 10 minutes remaining in the half.

D'Youville began to struggle again on offense as Altoona broke the game open and led by 20 with 6:33 to go in the first. Brian Nwakeke (Corona, CA/John F. Kennedy) broke the nearly four-minute scoring drought with a free throw that made the score 45-20 in favor of the Lions. Altoona continued to keep their large lead over D'Youville, holding a 49-28 advantage at the half.

In the first three minutes of the second half, the Lions outscored the Spartans 9-2. Following two Will VanAuken (Caledonia, NY/Caledonia-Mumford) free throws, D'Youville was back to within 15 of Altoona, but Altoona quickly came back at the Spartans and led by 29 with 8:36 to go in the game.

In the final 4:11, the Spartans limited the Lions to just six points and scored 14 of their own. Jagdeep Drumgoole (Rochester, NY/Early College) Tyreke Mims (Churchville, NY/Churchville-Chili), Wanya Bruce (Rochester, NY/Fairport), William Anderson (Hamburg, NY/Frontier), Devon Camel (Cheektowaga, NY/Cheektowaga) and Bryce Little (Arcade, NY/Pioneer) each had a hand in those 14 points. However Altoona would go on to win the game by the final score of 96-71.

"They took it to us early and we didn't handle it well," said head coach Earl Schunk. "Once we realized that we could play that way too we came back. It's time we played like that for 40 minutes."

All 14 Spartans that suited up Saturday afternoon scored at least a point for the men. VanAuken scored a team high 14 points and VanDuluitgaarden added 10. Simeon Heard (Rochester, NY/Charles Finney) added 11 points with Juan Miguel Rosales (Guatemala City, Guatemala/Village School) grabbing a team high nine rebounds.

The next game for the men comes this Wednesday, February 7 as they travel to Hilbert to play the Hawks at 6:00pm.