Box Score Abington, Pa. – The Penn State Abington men's basketball team earned their first victory of the season earlier Wednesday evening with a 99-74 win over Penn State Lehigh Valley. The Nittany Lions took a ten-point lead to halftime before blowing the doors off the gym in the second half to run away with the 25-point win. Junior forward Mike Marvin led all scorers with 24 points in the game, while junior Max Alton and freshman Nisiar Smith added 20 and 16, respectively. Freshman Shane Schmidt led Lehigh Valley with 17 points on the evening.
 
Penn State Abington (1-2, 0-0 NEAC) actually found themselves trailing by five in the early going of the game, but the Nittany Lions used a 16-2 run, capped off by a Smith three-pointer, to turn that deficit into a 19-10 lead by the 11:29 mark of the half.  Throughout the rest of the half, the game remained even, with Lehigh Valley crawling back to as close as two points down, but once again Abington distanced themselves with a great run. This time, Kevin Cooper got things started with a three from the wing before Max Alton and Devin Jones put up back-to-back jumpers to make it a 43-34 game. After a three from Lehigh Valley cut the lead to six, Mike Marvin earned a trip to the free-throw line with a strong move inside, where he made the pair. Finally, Jones put up two more of his 16 points on the evening with a coast-to-coast layup just before the buzzer sounded, making the halftime score 47-37 in favor of the hosts.
 
Unfortunately for Lehigh Valley (2-3, 0-0 PSUAC), that margin was destined to increase in the second half. Penn State Abington had one of their better shooting halves in recent memory, as the squad went 21-32 from the floor, a 66% clip, and 5-6 from beyond the arc. Right out of the gates, the Nittany Lions put together an 11-3 run to jump ahead by twenty with only four minutes gone in the half. Avery Barnes got things started with a jumper before Marvin drained another pair of free throws and then converted a layup after a big block from Max Alton. After a three from Lehigh Valley, Kyle Battell answered with a triple of his own, and then a fastbreak layup from Marvin and a jumper from Alton made it a 60-40 scoreline. Over the remainder of the game, the lead would swing anywhere from 27 to 15 points, with Penn State Abington easily maintaining control of the affair. Perhaps the most thrilling moment of the half came just five minutes in, when the Nittany Lions broke Lehigh Valley's press on a beautiful pass from Max Alton to Mike Marvin. The towering forward went lumbering unopposed down the court before throwing down a tremendous dunk that brought the crowd to their feet with a raucous roar.
 
Marvin earned his second double-double of the year with his 24-point, 13-rebound performance. Nisiar Smith added six assists with his sixteen points, while Kevin Cooper had eight helpers of his own to go along with a seven-point game. With the win, their first of the season, Penn State Abington moves to 1-2 on the year. The squad will hit the road for their next game, which comes this Saturday against the Highlanders of Cairn University. Gametime is set for 4:00 pm, and you can find all your news and stats right here at abingtonsports.com.