READING, Pa. – Penn State Harrisburg held a 40-10 points in the paint advantage and used a late first-half run to defeat Kenyon College 83-59 on Saturday afternoon during the Crowne Plaza Holiday Tournament held at Albright College.
 
The Lions improved to 5-6 while the Lords dropped to 4-7.
 
Opening-half action was close until the Lions made a run with less than seven minutes left.
 
Phillip Crampton scored the team's first 11 points on Saturday in the opening five minutes. Crampton drained a trio of three-pointers and added a jumper as the Lords led 11-8.
 
The tussle continued before Penn State Harrisburg took its second lead, 14-11, after a three-ball from Anthony Bennett Jr. at the 12:53 mark. That lead was maintained by the Lions before Ben Stern got into the action for the Lords.
 
The sophomore from Arlington, Va., got a pass from teammate Carter Powell and he hit a three-pointer at 9:19. That brought the score to 21-19.
 
After that though, Harrisburg went on a 12-1 run to seize control. Bennett Jr. hit two more long balls while Branson Coleman, Chris Bing and Tariq Bennet scored layups. Those hoops moved the score to 33-20 with 5:21 left. In that span, Kenyon missed all three of its shots and turned it over three times. The Lions added the final six points of the half to increase their lead to 45-30 at the break.
 
The 45 first-half points surrendered by Kenyon were the most this season.
 
In the second half, the Lords couldn't find the rhythm on the offensive end shooting 10-of-33 (30.3%) and never pulled the deficit below 15 points. On the other side, Harrisburg extended its lead past 20 points on a few occasions including the final margin, 83-59.
 
Stern led the Lords with 18 points on six-of-ten shooting while Crampton added 13. As a team, Kenyon was out-rebounded by ten, 41-31. 
 
Kenyon will look to snap a five-game losing streak when they host Wittenberg University on January 3 at 7:30 PM at Tomsich Arena.