ABINGTON, PA. – Against their Penn State rivals, the Penn State Abington men's basketball team put together a huge second half rally to overcome Berks 77-65 on Wednesday night.  After the win the Nittany Lions improve to 6-6 overall and 3-0 in the conference while Berks falls to 1-11 and 1-3 in the NEAC.
 
Sophomore guard Jay Fitzgerald (Philadelphia, PA) led the way with his 18 points while Jordan Lomax (West Haven, CT) earned another double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
 
Both schools traded blows early in the first half all tied at 10-10 with seven minutes off the clock.  Over the next few minutes Berks caught fire from behind the arc that powered them to an 8-0 run. Sophomore Pernell Ghee (Germantown, PA) tried to shift momentum with his fast break dunk but Berk's Matt Seip pushed the visitors lead to double digits with his fantastic shooting from the floor. Berks increased their lead to 14 points with only two minutes remaining, but Abington scored the last eight points of the half to cut the deficit.
 
Berks got into foul trouble early in the second half, and Abington capitalized to chip away at the lead. A shot from downtown by Ghee sparked the Nittany Lions bringing them within two points down 41-39. Later in the half Alex Salata III (Pottstown, PA) put Abington over the top with his three-ball giving the hosts the lead with 12:26 left in the game. Abington held onto the slim advantage down the stretch, but Fitzgerald widened the game with a pair of buckets from behind the arc. Abington's clutch free throw shooting helped to close out the game.
 
The Nittany Lions will be back in action when they host Cazenovia at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday. Over the weekend Penn State Abington SAAC will be partnering with the Special Olympics of Pennsylvania to host the athletes for lunch and the basketball double-header.