Utica, N.Y. – The final 20 minutes proved costly for the Penn State Abington men's basketball team on Sunday afternoon as the Nittany Lions held an 11-point lead at halftime, but gave up 43 second-half points in a 70-62 setback to SUNYIT. With the loss, Abington falls to 4-11 overall and 2-2 in the North Eastern Athletic Conference.

Desmain Greer and Kaleel Johnson led the Wildcats (3-11) came off the bench to score 19 points each, while Ryan James added 15 points on the day.

Sophomore guard Mike Marvin led Abington (4-11) with 23 points on 9-of-16 shooting and grabbed eight rebounds. Avery Barnes added 15 points and 15 rebounds, his fifth double-doubles of the season, while RJ Handy came off the bench to score a season-high 12 points on 3-of-6 shooting and pull down seven boards.

Abington's defense held the Wildcats to just 28.6 percent shooting during a workmanlike first half before the tables turned swiftly as SUNYIT hit one difficult shot after another while the Nittany Lions went ice cold.

Abington was on top 38-27 at the half as Handy went 3-for-4 from field with 10 points as the Nittany Lions shot 43.8 percent from the field and hit 4-of-7 (57.1 percent) from the stripe.

With the Nittany Lions leading by as much as 16 points in the second half, a 30-second timeout by SUNYIT at the 14:21 mark, sparked the Wildcats comeback as Ryan James went 6-for-9 from the field before nailing the lone three-pointer of the game with five minutes remaining to give SUNYIT its first and only lead of the game.

The Nittany Lions contested to retake the lead as a basket by Barnes cut the deficit to two, but that was as close as Abington could muster as the Wildcats held off the attempted rally and went on a 10-4 run for the win.

The victors were torrid from the field and the charity stripe during the second half. Besides improving their game-long field goal percentage to 42.4 percent, the Wildcats knocked down 17-of-25 free throw opportunities, while 40 of the 70 team points scored came off the bench.

The Nittany Lions will wrap up the four-game road trip on Wednesday, Jan. 16 in a conference matchup against Penn State Berks. Tip-off is slated for 6 p.m. Be sure to keep in touch at abingtonsports.com for all your Nittany Lions basketball updates.