(Posted November 17, 2010)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- Juniata College men's basketball will make its 2010-2011 home debut when it hosts Penn State Mont-Alto Friday evening in the annual Doc Greene tournament.

The Eagles (0-1) and the Nittany Lions (0-1) will face each other at 7:30 p.m. at the Kenny Sports + Recreation Center. Salisbury University (0-1) and Montclair State University (0-0) will kick off the tournament Friday at 5:30 p.m.

The Eagles are coming off a 9-16 season and will welcome seven freshmen to join the eight returning upperclassmen. Alex Raymond will replace two-time All-Conference point guard Jeff Berkey. Last season, Raymond led the team in assists and was second in scoring. The Eagles will also return junior Dan Sekulski who averaged 5.7 points and 2.6 rebounds per game.

Juniata will be looking to rebound from a 65-61 loss against Carnegie Mellon University in the season opener on Monday. Sekulski dropped 24 points on the Tartans, while Raymond and Austin Ankney scored eight points each. Raymond paced the Eagles with seven boards.

Juniata's first opponent of the weekend, Penn State Mont Alto, comes into the Doc Greene Invitational ranked #9 in PSUAC Pre-Season Coaches Poll. The Nittany Lions are returning six players and welcoming eight freshmen to the team.

On Monday night, Mont Alto traveled to Hood College for their season opener. Shane Santell led the team in scoring with 14 points, followed by Jesse Newman with 11 in its 59-93 loss to Hood. Kevin Onyneaka came up with two blocks, six rebounds and nine points on the night. The Nittany Lions drilled eight three-pointers, four of which came from guard Shane Santell. The team shot 37.9% from the field and 32% behind the arc.

The Montclair State Red Hawks open their season this weekend against Salisbury. Last season, the team went 12-13 overall and were 4-9 in the New Jersey Athletic Conference. The Red Hawks graduated their top scoring forward, Daniel McRae, who also led the NJAC in blocked shots. Senior Rodney Freeney and junior Ali Mix will hope to make up for what the Red Hawks lost in scoring with McRae. Freeney and Mix were tied for second on the team in scoring average last season with 8.1 points per game. Sean Young tacked on 6.8 points and 3.7 rebounds per game last season, and is Montclair State's top returning rebounder.

Salisbury offers a wealth of experienced players on this year's team as they return nine letterwinners from a squad that made an appearance in the Capital Athletic Conference Quarterfinals last season and went 13-12 overall.

The Sea Gulls will look to senior center and captain Chris McGrew to have another great season. In 2009-10, McGrew led the team in points scored in seven games and set new personal bests in practically every category.

On Saturday the consolation match will be held at 2:00 p.m. and the championship match will be held at 4:00 p.m.
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Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.