OBSERVER Photo by Ron Szot. Fredonia State’s De’Quan Smith (10) shoots a shot over a Penn State Shenango defender during Tuesday’s men’s basketball game at Dods Hall in Fredonia. The Fredonia State Blue Devils won the game by a score of 62-53.

Heading into a big weekend where they will face two SUNYAC opponents, the Fredonia State Blue Devils first had to get by a non-league opponent, the Penn St.-Shenango Nittany Lions. The Blue Devils fought through some early sluggishness and were able to take care of the Nittany Lions, 62-53, in Dods Hall at SUNY Fredonia on Tuesday night. In fact, the Blue Devils led the entire game.

“I thought we were going to come out sluggish,” Fredonia State coach Philip Seymore said. “We have a big SUNYAC weekend coming up, and with the Tuesday game I thought we may come out slow. But we fought our way through, battled, and got a win.”

Fredonia State (6-7) had some offensive struggles in the early portion of the game, but their defense was more than tenacious enough to compensate for it. Fredonia only scored 10 points in the first 3:30 of the game, but in that same frame of time, the Nittany Lions (4-10) only mustered two points.

The defense continued to hold strong through the first half, as Fredonia State held the Nittany Lions to just 24 first half points. The Blue Devils let the visitors get as close as five points down, as the Fredonia offense continue to struggle.

“The defense was good, we held them to just 24 in first half,” Seymore said. “Offensively we were not sharp and not sharing the ball. Once we started doing more of that, we got some continuity. The defense was still good.”

As the second half began, it was a similar tale to the first half, though both offenses became a bit more consistent. With seven minutes to go in the game, the Nittany Lions’ Donovan Verges hit a 3-pointer that put his down just one point, 45-44, the closest it was since the opening tip. Seymore said his team had to figure it out on the fly.

“I told them I wasn’t calling a timeout. I told them they’re going to have get themselves together,” Seymore said. “We made some good substitutions and moved the ball more. This was a good one to get because one like that can easily get away.”

One player who had it figured out for the Blue Devils was senior big man Moussa Samassa, who scored 19 points on the game and pulled down 16 rebounds. Following that 3-pointer Verges sunk, Samassa answered. Fredonia’s Tyler Roberts tried to answer with a 3 of his own, but it was just off. Fortunately, Samassa was on the spot to grab the board and put it back for a layup, putting his team back up three points, 47-44.

A couple of possessions later, with his team now up 52-49, Samassa came up big again, this time burying a 3 from the top of the arc, putting his team up 55-49. The 3 proved to be the dagger Fredonia needed, as it ended the last Nittany Lion run. Seymore had high praise for Samassa’s game.

“He played excellent,” Seymore said. “He has gotten better and better as season has gone on. He’s more comfortable taking his shot from the perimeter and passing the ball. He’s very capable, he’s in the gym working every day with the shooting gun. His hard work is paying off.”

One negative for Fredonia coming out of the game was the injury to guard Tyler Roberts, who injured his ankle late in the second half. Fortunately, Seymore doesn’t expect the injury to be too serious.

“He hurt his ankle, but it’s not anything different than a normal injury,” Seymore said. “He may have enough time to recover, he won’t practice but we hope to have him for the weekend.”

As the Blue Devils move on to face New Paltz and Oneonta this weekend, Seymore knows they need to come out stronger against league opponents, while keeping the same defensive intensity.

“Our league is tough,” Seymore said. “There are no shortcuts. We can’t afford to come out like we did today.”

Samassa led all scorers with 19 points, while Roberts added 10, De’Quan Smith added nine, and Colden George had eight.

The Nittany Lions were led by Tyler James with 13 points, while B.J. Williams had 12.