ONEONTA, N.Y. - The Penn State Altoona men's basketball team competed in the consolation game of the Michael A. Freilich Classic Sunday afternoon, when they lost 80-61 against SUNY-Oneonta. 

SUNY-Oneonta (2-1) played their way to a 36-21 halftime lead, capitalizing on many missed opportunities by Penn State Altoona (1-3), then went up by as many as 24 points in the second half. Despite the Lions improving their shooting percentage in the second half to 57.1%, they could not catch up to the Red Dragons, losing 80-61. 

Michael Baskerville (Damascus, MD/Damascus) led the Lions in scoring, finishing with 16 points. Nehemiah Frye (King George, VA/King George) finished with 15 points and a team-high seven rebounds. 

Teddy Mangan (Yardley, PA/Pennsbury) and Elliot Johansson (Stockholm, Sweden/Tibble Gymnasium) led the team in assists with three each.  

SUNY-Oneonta got 30 points from Kobe Long, while Sam Booth added 21 points for the Red Dragons.  

Both teams had a sluggish start to the game, with Penn State Altoona only getting two baskets and SUNY-Oneonta getting three baskets in the first five minutes of the game.  

It was not until near the end of the half that SUNY-Oneonta started to grow their lead. Missed shots would hurt the Lions as they scored their final basket of the first half with 3:28 remaining. During those final three-and-a-half minutes, the Red Dragons would score 10 points to make the halftime score 36-21. 

The second half started with both teams exchanging points. Beginning at 19:48, the Lions went on a 9-4 run to close the gap to 10 points (30-40). Nicholas Cortez and the Red Dragons responded by scoring two three-pointers to extend the lead to 16 points (46-30).  

After nearly three minutes with no points scored by either team, Nate Cohen made a layup to make it 50-34. Johansson scored a layup of his own to restore the 14-point gap.  

The Red Dragons started a 14-2 run with 5:31 left in the game to extend their lead to 24 points. Jalen Triplin (Altoona, PA/Altoona) scored two layups and a free throw to close out the scoring, making it 80-61.  

Throughout the game, SUNY-Oneonta had the advantage in field goal percentage (45.3% to Penn State Altoona's 40.4%) and three-point percentage (40.0% to 22.7%). SUNY-Oneonta also took advantage of Penn State Altoona's turnovers, scoring 20 points off turnovers. Meanwhile, Penn State Altoona scored nine points off SUNY-Oneonta turnovers.  

Next up, Penn State Altoona men's basketball travels to Williamsport to compete against Penn College on Wednesday, November 19 at 5:00 p.m.