Keuka College's men's basketball team went on an 11-0 run to open the second half and held off Lancaster Bible College 67-64 to win its second straight North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) game Saturday afternoon inside the Weed Physical Arts Center.
Four different players reached double-figures in scoring for Keuka (2-8, 2-1 NEAC), led by junior Teddy Tuggles (Rochester, NY/Gates Chili), who scored a team-high 16 points in 35 minutes. Freshmen Coty Paige (Rochester, NY/Greece Arcadia) and Anthony Ordonez (Port Chester, NY/Port Chester) each added 12 points while classmate Tyler Hixson (Shortsville, NY/Red Jacket) chipped in with 11 points, 7 rebounds, 2 blocks and 2 steals for the Storm.
Playing its first game in 2012, Paige scored eight first-half points, but the Storm trailed 27-24 entering halftime. Keuka used an accurate perimeter game to take the lead early in the second. Freshman guard Joe Tortolon (Dundee, NY/Dundee) buried back-to-back three-pointers on the Storm's first two possessions of the half, and the lead swelled to 33-27 when Tuggles converted a three-point play with 17:21 remaining.
"That always helps us, to knock down the first two 3's of the second half really helped us and got us going," said Thad Phillips, Keuka's second-year head coach.
"(Our made three-pointer) were off of big passes, and they didn't come off of a drive and a kick off of one pass, they came off of two to three good passes, each of them, and those are big for us and got us moving a bit more. … We had a lot better movement in the second half, and that helped our offense."
Junior Conor Boyer (East Rochester, NY/East Rochester) made a layup to extend the lead to 35-27 with 16:55 remaining to cap the 11-0 run. Lancaster Bible (1-8, 0-3 NEAC) hung around and led by as many as five points midway through the second half, but Hixson made a pair of layups, senior Brian Cunliffe (Rochester, NY/Gates Chili) and Ordonez each made layups and Tuggles hit three of four free throws as the Storm rallied to tie the score at 60 with 4:27 remaining.
After the Chargers retook the lead at 62-61, Tuggles drained a '3' and Paige hit a layup to push the Storm lead to 66-62. Tuggles made the second of two free throws to give Keuka a 67-64 lead with 24 seconds remaining, and the Chargers missed four three pointers on their final possession as the Storm held on for the win, its second consecutive NEAC victory.
Tortolon finished with nine points on 3-of-6 shooting from three-point range, Paige snared nine rebounds while Cunliffe added five points and five assists for the Storm, which shot 17-for-34 (50 percent) in the second half.
Darrell Epps scored 17 points and Kurt Keltner added 15 points and six rebounds for Lancaster Bible.
The Storm return to action with a 1 p.m. clash Sunday afternoon against Penn State-Berks.
"It's another win for us, and we haven't won much so every win is great," Phillips said. "The entire second half, no matter what happened we responded and picked up our intensity every time. … We got one step closer (to the NEAC tournament) and we want to get two wins this weekend, but you can't get to two (wins) without getting the first one. We played really well in the second half."