YORK, PA – The York College men's basketball team picked up an important Capital Athletic Conference win as they downed the University of Mary Washington 72-66 in league play on Saturday in York.
The Spartan improve to 6-2 overall and 2-1 in the league. The Eagles fall to 5-3 overall and are now 2-1 in the conference. York is now 5-0 at home for the year.
The Eagles jumped out to an early lead as they led the Spartans 11-7 just under four minutes into the game. The Spartans would battle back and tie the game at 16 on a Dalton Myers (Finksburg, Md./Westminster) bucket with 7:53 left in the half. The Eagles took a two-point lead on a Johnny Cronin bucket but York ripped off nine straight points to forge a 25-18 lead with 5:04 left in the half. The Spartans kept the lead over the next four minutes but with 1:03 left, Brent Mahoney hit a lay up to give the Eagles a 29-28 lead. Myers and Brad Wesner (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Trinity) hit back-to-back buckets in the final 43 seconds to give York a 32-29 lead at the break.
The Spartans came out of the half and pushed their lead to seven just over three minutes into the stanza. The lead would climb to 48-38 on a Wesner triple with 11:30 left in the game. The Eagles responded with five straight points of the their own to cut their deficit in half. York quickly responded with a Wesner jumper and a Matt Scamuffo (Chalftont, Pa./Central Bucks South) three-point play as the Spartan lead was again ten. The biggest shot of the night would follow as sophomore Blayde Reich (Lebanon, Pa./Lebanon) drilled a deep three pointer from the top of the key with the shot clock running down to push the York lead to a game-high 13 points with 8:00 left in the game.
The Eagles remained undeterred as they scored the next seven points of the game to trim York's lead to 56-50. The Spartans answered by scoring the next six points to push the lead back to 12 with 4:31 remaining.
That set the stage for an exciting final three minutes of the game. The Eagles cut the lead to 65-61 on an Asa Scott lay up with 1:44 left. York got a free throw from Mike Duffy (Hanover, Pa./South Western) with 1:22 showing on the clock to push the lead to 66-61. Reich collected a huge rebound on the Eagles next possession and UMW fouled Duffy again. This time the sophomore guard sunk both attempts to push the lead to seven.
After another Spartan stop, Scamuffo was fouled and sunk both of his free throw attempts to extend the York lead to 70-61 with 30 seconds left. LJ Baylor came down and drilled a three-pointer with 21 seconds left but Wesner was fouled and made both of his freebies with 19 seconds left to close out the scoring for York. UMW's Mark Madison hit a lay up with 11 seconds to provide for the final score.
Myers had a big day for the Green and White as the junior forward tossed in a game-high 20 points. He was 6-for-8 from the floor and was 8-for-11 from the free throw line. Myers also pulled in five rebounds and dished out two assists in his 34 minutes of play. Scamuffo had a huge second half as the sophomore scored 17 points with 14 coming in the second half. Scamuffo was 5-for-9 from the field including 1-for-3 from distance. Scamuffo was a perfect 6-for-6 from the stripe in the win. Wesner chipped in with a season-high 13 point as the junior came off the bench to hit 3-of-7 from the floor including one three pointer. He was also a perfect 6-for-6 from the line. All six of Wesner's free throws came in the final six minutes of the game.
Sophomore Zach Galic (Camp Hill, Pa./Cedar Cliff) came off the bench and gave York a great 20 minutes of play as he tallied eight points and pulled a game-high eight rebounds. Galic was 3-for-4 from the floor and 2-for-2 from the line. He also blocked a pair of shots in the victory.
Mary Washington was led by TJ Jones as he tallied 15 points for the Eagles. Jones was 5-for-13 from the floor and 4-for-4 from the line. He also had six rebounds in the game. LJ Baylor added nine points as he was a perfect 3-for-3 from distance as he played just six minutes in the game. All 11 players who saw action for the Eagles scored in the game.
York finished the game shooting a blistering 55.3% from the field. York attempted just 38 shots in the game while the Eagles hoisted up 62 attempts for the contest. The Spartans converted 4-of-12 (33.3%) from three while they went a very strong 26-for-33 (78.8%) from the line.
The 26 made free throws were a season-high for York while their shooting percentage was their second best effort of the year. York has now shot over 50% from the floor in four of their eight games for the year.
Mary Washington shot 38.7% for the game including 9-of-31 (29%) from three. The Eagles were just 9-of-16 from the stripe in the loss.
The Eagles were the first team this year to outrebound York as they held a slight 32-31 margin on the glass. The Spartans allowed the Eagles 14 offensive rebounds which led to 17 second chance points for UMW. York had a season-low three offensive rebounds in the game.
The Spartans committed 17 turnovers in the game as the Eagles got 19 points of those miscues.
The Spartans return to action on Tuesday, December 29 when they travel to the Louis Fleming Basinger Memorial Tournament hosted by Lycoming College. The Spartans will face Old Westbury in the opening round of the tournament on Tuesday evening at 8:00 pm. Host Lycoming will face Washington (Md.) in the other tournament semifinal.