Amaechi finishes with stellar game

By RYAN JONES
Collegian Sports Writer

A team's last regular season home game is traditionally a time to honor its departing seniors.

And when the men's basketball team hosted Minnesota Saturday night in Rec Hall, its most significant senior, center John Amaechi, went out in typical style with an 18-point, 11-rebound performance.

But leave it to a couple of youngsters -- specifically, a junior and a freshman -- to steal a share of the spotlight. In this case, it was junior forward Glenn Sekunda and freshman guard Pete Lisicky who combined for 22 second-half points and helped the Lions (17-10, 9-9 Big Ten) turn a seven-point deficit into a 69-60 win over the Golden Gophers (19-11, 10-8).

"I'm absolutely elated about this game," Penn State Coach Bruce Parkhill said. "I feel as good right now as I can remember after a game. I just really wanted those guys to go out feeling good."

Beside Amaechi, those guys included senior guards Nate Althouse, Brad Kopcha and Donovan Williams, center Michael Joseph and swingman Greg Bartram. Four of them went scoreless, but Bartram added seven points on 3-of-6 shooting, including a 25-foot three-pointer that opened the Lions' scoring just over a minute into the game.

But the seniors weren't the story -- with the exception of Amaechi. The senior pivotman, who scored 13 of his 18 points in the second half, came up clutch on numerous occasions.

On back-to-back trips to the free-throw line midway through the second half, Amaechi made both ends of one-and-one situations, and his three-point play at the 7 minute, 25 second mark gave the Lions a 48-46 lead.

"I thought Amaechi really stepped it up big time in the second half," Minnesota Coach Clem Haskins said. "He really broke us down inside."

While Amaechi did the dirty work in the paint, Sekunda and Lisicky hammered the Gophers from the rest of the floor. Sekunda scored 11 of his 19 points in the second, including 5-of-5 from the line, while Lisicky got all of his 11 in the final stanza on a trio of three-pointers and a pair of free throws.

The sharp-shooting frosh hit his last two treys exactly one minute apart, the second at the 6:03 mark to give the Lions a 51-49 lead and the third with 5:03 left to extend the lead to five. Lisicky's two from the charity stripe came with 56.7 seconds left on the clock and proved to be the game winners.

The Gophers were doomed by subpar shooting that showed most painfully in their high-scoring backcourt. Seniors Voshon Lenard and Townsend Orr, who came into the contest averaging a combined 30.9 points per game, together went 4-of-19 from the field and totalled just 11 points.

Lenard in particular was hampered -- not only by the Lions' sturdy defense, but by lingering soreness from a fall he took on the Gophers' elevated home court in last Thursday's loss to Purdue.

"That really hurt him," Haskins said. "He took a nasty spill in our game against Purdue. That's the key tonight."