They're not exactly shocking the world with upsets, in fact they're not even dominating the Patriot League teams they are beating, but the Penn State men's basketball team is happy with any wins they can get.

The Nittany Lions (2-4) picked up their second victory last night at the Bryce Jordan Center with a 61-48 victory over Lehigh (0-7), conference mates with Lafayette, the only other team the Lions have beaten this season.

"When you're young, it's important to win," Penn State men's basketball coach Jerry Dunn said. "These guys have been working hard. The results, when it's positive I think it's very good for their confidence."

The Lions found out early on that they wouldn't be able to blow out the Mountain Hawks. Lehigh ripped off a 10-3 lead early to take a 15-8 lead in the ball game, as they stifled Penn State with their zone defense. However, the Lions found the guy with the hot hand in sophomore guard Sharif Chambliss. After a solid shooting night against Temple on Saturday, Chambliss made four straight threes, creating his own 12-4 run to give the Lions a 20-19 lead. After a jumper by junior point guard Brandon Watkins, Chambliss hit another three to increase the lead to six. They would never trail again.

The Mountain Hawks got back within one before a first-half buzzer beater by Lion freshman forward Jan Jagla upped the deficit back to three points at the break. Lehigh kept the Lions from pouring it on early in the second half. In the first ten minutes of the second frame, the Mountain Hawks twice came within one point, and didn't fall behind by more than five.

However, the Lions started turning up the defensive pressure midway through the second half, and the Mountain Hawks couldn't handle it. They shot just 6-for-21 in the second stanza, and went ice cold from the field at the 11:21 mark, not hitting a shot for seven minutes, and only one more the entire game.

"There was a stretch coach mentioned around the ten minute mark when I think we made six or seven real solid stops in a row," senior forward Tyler Smith said. "We were taking them out of their stuff I think, getting some deflections and steals, and forcing them to take a tough shot. What did they have, two or three shot clock violations? I think that's a sign of a great defensive effort."

The Lions converted that to a 13-2 run, punctuated by a three-point play on an inbound steal by Chambliss at the 6:15 mark that garnered his team a 57-43 lead. That would be enough to ice the victory.

Lehigh's coach Sal Mentesana was proud of his team's effort, and expects a similar showing against the Mountain Hawks other opponents to yield better results.

"If we have that kind of effort in all of our other games, we're going to get some wins," Mentesana said. "We've been in every game. The only thing that hasn't turned out for us is the final score. My kids, believe it or not, and I know this might sound a little nuts. We're 0-7, but they're very confident we're going to turn this around."

Chambliss's 20 points led all scorers. Senior forward Tyler Smith followed with 13, and Jagla chipped in 11 in his second game back and his first at the Bryce Jordan Center from NCAA suspension. Center Matt Crawford led the Mountain Hawks with 12 points.

The Lions will go back to playing major conference teams when they travel to the Steel City to play Pittsburgh on Saturday at 4 p.m.