Early lead enough for State College boys’ basketball

As State College’s lead continued to shrink, Little Lions coach Joe Walker wanted to send a clear message to his players.

With 3:58 left in the fourth quarter, they couldn’t hope to hold on to their lead. Altoona had cut State College’s 14-point halftime lead to four points, with a chance to move within two with a pair of free throws out of the timeout. The coach had watched his team sit back instead of attacking, making “lazy” passes and failing to make hard cuts during the Mountain Lions’ run.

Walker thought the Little Lions were playing not to lose.

“I wanted them to play to win — like realize that we have time left and we have to finish it out,” Walker said. “The clock’s not just going to run out because they’re going to keep fighting.”

Altoona did keep fighting, but State College escaped with a 46-43 win Monday night.

The Little Lions (12-9) did just enough offensively in the final minutes to hold off the Mountain Lions (7-11), who were never able to pull even. Drew Friberg scored all seven of the team’s points in the fourth quarter and finished with a team-high 11 points.

Friberg’s three-point play with 2:23 to go gave State College a 46-41 lead. State College missed the front end of two one-and-ones in the final 1:22, leaving the door open for Altoona to send the game to overtime. But Jacob Port’s game-tying 3-point attempt at the buzzer was too strong.

State College managed just 13 points in the second half after dominating the first two quarters.

The Little Lions built what proved to be an insurmountable lead behind their full-court press. Walker called for his team to keep the pressure on and push the ball offensively, and they executed on both ends to take a 16-9 lead by the end of the first quarter.

It was more of the same in the second quarter as the Little Lions went into the break with a 33-19 lead.

“Their press was really intense,” Altoona coach Paul Hasson said. “We turned the ball over quite frequently in that first half. We actually even had trouble inbounding the ball, which I got to give State College a lot of credit.

“Their press was just very tenacious. We got down and a lot of it was because of the press.”

State College’s Brandon Clark spearheaded the defensive effort.

Clark was active in the press, cutting off passing lanes on Altoona’s inbounds for steals. He pressured Altoona’s guards, switching onto both of them in the press. And he guarded Altoona’s forwards at times in the halfcourt.

His length was on display at the start of the second half when he reached out to control an inbound pass — corralling another steal — and got it to teammate Andrew Witt for a layup to make it 35-21.

Clark has taken on tough assignments on the defensive end throughout the season.

“He’s really taken it as a challenge to be our best defender,” Walker said.

But State College didn’t benefit from that pressure in the second half.

The Little Lions didn’t score for long stretches.

Witt’s layup was State College’s lone field goal five minutes into the third quarter. Altoona had pulled within six points as a result.

“We did put a lot of pressure on ‘em, but that was dependent upon us scoring and in the second half we couldn’t score,” Walker said. “We didn’t score so we were never able to apply that pressure. … It was a big quagmire. I mean it was not fun to watch the second half of basketball.”

State College took an eight-point lead into the final quarter, and Altoona continued its comeback.

Port, who finished with a game-high 25 points, hit a pair of free throws out of the timeout with 3:58 to play to bring the Mountain Lions within 41-39.

Friberg answered by grabbing an offensive rebound, drawing a foul and knocking down two free throws. After a Port jumper, Friberg completed the three-point play.

And Port’s game-tying 3 attempt hit hard off the glass and kicked off the rim as time expired.

“It was a great look that he had,” Hasson said. “I give him a lot of credit for taking it, but we still lost, so we just try to regroup for our next game.”

This story was originally published February 8, 2016 at 11:21 PM with the headline "Early lead enough for State College boys’ basketball."