ALTOONA, Pa.- The Shenandoah University men's basketball team had a season-high scoring output Saturday night in a 97-85 non-league victory over Penn St. - Altoona.
Shenandoah (5-3) won its second straight and its fourth in four lifetime meetings versus PSU-A (6-4) by scoring 29 points from the line and outrebounding the Lions by nine.
Senior Jonah Meredith did most of that damage from the charity stripe, making a school record 17 on 20 attempts. The 17 successful free throws breaks the record of 16 set by Phil Dixon '96 in 1994 and the 20 attempts breaks the previous record of 19 by Cameron Jones '99 in 1998.
Both Dixon's and Jones' old marks were set in games versus Marymount University.
The game was a back-and-forth affair that saw the two teams trade the lead eight times and were tied on seven additional occasions.
Both teams also held double-digit leads in the first half, Altoona by 12 at the 8:37 mark and SU by 10 with 1:37 remaining.
Shenandoah battled back from that 12-point deficit with a 16-2 run over a span of 2:23 that gave the Hornets a 39-37 lead with exactly 6:00 left.
Meredith had 10 of his squad's points during this run, including eight from the line.
The run eventually reached 31-9 and gave the Hornets their 10-point lead, 54-44, following an Aaron Patterson 3-pointer 97 seconds before halftime.
The Lions closed out the half on a 9-1 run of their own to give SU a 55-53 lead at the break.
The two teams exchanged the lead four times in the second half with Shenandoah taking the lead for good on an Avery White layup following a Christopher Chaney steal at the 12:33 mark.
White's bucket started a 30-18 game-ending run for the victors.
Jonah Meredith led all scorers with 25 points while Chaney contributed 19 points off the bench. SU scored 46 of the 65 bench points on the night.
Dequan Jackson scored a team high 20 points for the hosts.
"We are so proud of these guys for getting a good team win on the road," head coach Adam Walsh said. "We met a lot of our team goals tonight.
"One of our goals with Jonah has been going downhill, being aggressive and getting to the free throw line. Breaking a record is pretty fun, too."
SU travels to Elizabethtown on Tuesday, December 19 for a 7 p.m. non-league contest.
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