Box Score (StatCrew) | Box Score (SIDEARM)
WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Instead of getting down and moping about one of their worst losses of the season, Elizabethtown College men's basketball did the complete opposite. Joe Schwalm scored 17 points and Lee Eckert backed him up with a career-high 16, as the Blue Jays upset Commonwealth Conference rival Lycoming, 69-66, Wednesday night for arguably their best win of the season.
It's been a bit of a roller coaster season for the Blue Jays (7-10, 3-4 CC), but the highs have been really high. E-town already owned a victory over Widener, picked to finish second in the conference's preseason poll. Now they have one over the Warriors, who were 15-3 overall, 9-1 at home heading into Wednesday, and tied atop the conference at 5-1.
Commitment to defense proved key for the Jays. Lycoming, the top scoring team in the Commonwealth Conference at 82.5 points per game, had already topped 90 points in a game eight times and the century mark twice. E-town may not have been the likeliest of teams to hold the Warriors (15-3, 5-2 CC) down, but they did it with 12 steals and 20 forced turnovers. Ten steals and 15 turnovers came in the first half, as the Jays turned Lycoming's miscues into 20 points as they built a 15-point lead, 33-18, on Will Schlosser's 3-pointer with 5:30 to go in the half.
E-town, a 39-31 leader at halftime, withstood every run the Warriors tried to make and still led by 10 points (63-53) following Eckert's free throw 4:31 from the end of regulation. Lycoming came hard one last time though. A quick 7-0 run ended with Patrick Dougher's fastbreak trey and made it a one possession game with 2:23 left. All season the Blue Jays have had free throw shooting as their achilles' heel, but Andrew Mantz stepped up and nailed a pair of attempts to extend the lead to 65-60 with the clock stuck on two minutes.
On Lyco's next possession, Anthony Martin scored on a layup; but the Warriors came up dry on their next three trips down the floor, missing two shots and turning the ball over once. Ihsaan Davis closed the gap to one on a jumper in the paint with 13 seconds left and two free throws by Jerald Williams put it there one last time with under five seconds remaining.
That free throw shooting issue for the Blue Jays was lifted, at least on this night, as Kyle McConnell and Schlosser both were perfect on two attempts each in the final 10 seconds to secure the win. Lycoming never got a shot off following Schlosser's free throws with three seconds to go.
Schwalm opened the game with nine points in the first half, while Schlosser scored eight of his 10 in the period. Eckert would score six in the first and add 10 more in the second. The Warriors didn't have an answer for the freshman, as he knocked down a career-high seven field goals on 11 attempts.
In the begging and end, it all came back to the 'D', however. Not one of Lycoming's starters hit more than half of his field goal attempts on the evening. It was an especially rough night for the league's fourth-leading scorer Kevin Anthony, who was held to three points on 1-of-8 shooting in just 18 minutes. Anthony is averaging over 15 points per game for the season. The Warriors Michael Rudy hit 5-of-7 shots off the bench for 12 points. Mike Bradley and Williams shared the team lead with 13 apiece. Dougher scored 12, but the Warriors shot 36.7 percent for the game. E-town became just the fourth team this season to hold Lycoming under 70 points.
Tying Dougher for the game-high in 3-pointers made was Schwalm, who hit 3-of-8 from outside. McConnell scored eight points while handing out six assists. Mantz tore down eight rebounds to go along with his eight points.
The Blue Jays currently sit in a three-way tie for the fourth and final playoff spot as the first half of league play concluded this evening. E-town has beaten both of the teams it currently sits even with (Widener and Lebanon Valley), but will have to play on both teams' home courts down the stretch. The Blue and Gray looks to reverse an early season loss to Arcadia when the Knights visit Thompson Gymnasium for a 4 p.m. tip-off Saturday.