Altoona, PA - The D'Youville men's basketball team lost a road contest to the Penn State-Altoona Lions on Saturday afternoon by the final score 112-91.

Grant Beyer (Williamsville, NY/St. Joe's) began the scoring in the game with a three that gave the Spartans an early lead. Altoona would then get going as they took scored nine unanswered to take the lead. The Spartans would then come back to tie the game before the Lions would go ahead again and take a seven-point lead at 19-12 with 8:01 off the clock in the first. 

As the first went on, Altoona extended their lead to 10 at 25-15 and then 13 at 31-18 a few minutes later. D'Youville would then start chipping away, cutting their deficit to six with a pair of Juan Miguel Rosales (Guatemala City, Guatemala/Village School) free throws. However, Altoona would push their lead back to 10 less than a minute later. 

In the final four minutes of the first, the Spartans would turn it on. Brian Sharp (Newark, NY/Newark) drilled a three to bring the deficit to five, followed by a three from Beyer to close the gap to two. With less than two to go in the half, Noah Denz (East Aurora, NY/East Aurora) made back-to-back baskets to tie the game at 39. The Lions would close out a 5-0 run to close out the half as Altoona led 44-39.

After just over two minutes of play in the second, the Lions would reestablish their lead to go up by 13. That lead would continue to grow as the half went on with Altoona taking control. The second half performance from the Lions was too much for the Spartans as they would go on to win the game by the final score of 112-91.

Beyer led the team with 26 points and tied Denz for the team high in rebounds with seven. Both Devon Darrell (Lockport, NY/Lockport) and Simeon Heard (Rochester, NY/Charles Finney) scored 11 points with three assists each Denz and Darrius Hartzog (Rochester, NY/Wilson Magnet) each tallied nine points.

Of the 13 Spartans that played, 11 scored against the Lions. Jake Funderburk (Amherst, NY/Amherst) and Ryan Davis (Darien Center, NY/Alexander) each scored a pair of points with Sharp and Rosales adding six each. Latrell Butler (Olean, NY/Olean) added five points while Torree Cheatham (Lockport, NY/Lockport) added four. Both Trey Boling (Tonawanda, NY/St. Joe's) and Mike DiPane (Seaford, NY/St. Anthony) saw quality minutes in the loss.

The next game for the Spartans comes this Wednesday, December 18 as they host the Medaille Mavericks at 6:00pm as the play their final game before the holiday break.