2/23/08

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa.—Lycoming’s men’s basketball team (16-9, 7-3) fell to Lebanon Valley (11-14, 5-5) by a score of 72-68 on Senior Day Saturday, in the final game of the regular season for both teams. However, the Warriors and the Flying Dutchmen will meet again on Wednesday, Feb. 27 at 7 p.m. in Lamade Gymnasium in a Commonwealth Conference semi-final playoff game.

As regular season conference champions, Lycoming is the top seed in the Commonwealth. Leb Val qualified as the fourth seed after today’s victory and an 82-70 Messiah loss to Albright this afternoon.

For the Warriors, sophomore Eric Anthony (Wheeling, W.V.) scored 23 points against the Dutchmen, including three second-half three-pointers which helped bring Lycoming back from a 29-20 halftime deficit. Seniors Kevin Morris (Camp Hill, Pa.) and David Wilson (Pottsville, Pa.), who were celebrated before the game for Senior Day, scored 13 and 11 points, respectively, in the contest.

The Warriors ran out to a 19-11 lead midway through the first half, but their shooting went cold as they suffered a nearly 11-minute scoring drought near the end of the half. An Anthony foul shot finally ended Lycoming's bare stretch, but Dutchman Peter Ruth hit a jumper at the buzzer to give LVC the lead at the break. All told, LVC ended the half on a 18-1 run.

A Morris three-pointer ended 16:09 without a basket for the Warriors, but Leb Val kept the lead around 10 until Morris was fouled beyond the arc and went to the line to shoot three. He completed the three-point play to cut the deficit to 38-31 with 13 minutes left.

Two consecutive Anthony treys made it a 42-40 game. After an LVC turnover, Greg Sye (Chantilly, Va.) hit a layup and drew the foul. He converted the three-point play to put the Warriors up 43-42 with exactly 10 minutes to go.

The Dutchmen and Warriors traded baskets until Jemayne Nowlin (Gaithersburg, Md.) canned a three to give Lycoming a four-point lead at 7:34.

LVC came back with a 7-0 spurt to retake the lead, and Lycoming again pulled within a point before James Shinn hit a basket to give LVC a 59-56 lead with three minutes left on the clock. The Dutchmen ran out of a Warrior timeout with a long-range deuce by Dan Hodge and a baseline runner from Shinn, but Anthony responded with a fall-away two-pointer to make it a 63-58 game.

Hodge hit a 12-footer out of another Lycoming timeout, but then fouled Anthony in the act of a three-pointer leading Anthony to convert Lycoming’s second foul line three of the game.

After an LVC turnover, a Dutchmen foul let Anthony cut the lead to two. A Wilson three cut Leb Val’s lead to one, at 67-66, with just 17.8 seconds remaining. The teams traded twos from the free throw line, but a successful foul shot by Kyle Enoch and then two by Dustin Kerns sealed the victory and a conference playoff spot for the Flying Dutchmen.

These longtime foes will meet for the third time this season in a rubber match Commonwealth semi-final game at Lamade Gymnasium this Wednesday, Feb. 27 at 7 p.m.