Jan 07, 2012
Fr. Will Schlosser scored 19 points on 5-of-6 shooting from 3-point range in Saturday's 72-69 loss to Eastern.
Box Score (Stat Crew) | Box Score (SIDEARM)
ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. — The luxury of having five senior starters paid off late for visiting Eastern University in its men's basketball game against the Elizabethtown Blue Jays Saturday afternoon at Thompson Gymnasium. Martin Soaries, one of those five, took over scoring 10 of his 15 points in the final 5:04 to help the Eagles snatch a win away from the Blue Jays, 72-69.
In its bid to win a fourth straight game on its own court, Elizabethtown (4-8) did everything it needed to do from the start. Andrew Mantz made a pretty spin move to the middle of the lane and dropped in two points on the Jays' opening possession, a basket that began a 13-point day for the sophomore from Sunbury.
Freshman Will Schlosser checked in to the game at the seven minute mark of the first half and immediately began terrorizing the Eagles (8-4) from deep. The E-town native sank two high-arcing rainbow 3-pointers around a Lee Ecker jumper which he also assisted on. The second of those 3-pointers gave the Blue Jays their largest lead of the half at 12 points (19-7).
The Jays would never trail in the half, as Eastern shot just 9-of-30 (30%). The Blue Jays, meanwhile, hit 44% (11-of-25) of their field goal attempts and picked up five steals to lead 29-24 at the break. Schlosser hit another three later in the half to finish the opening 20 minutes 3-for-3 from outside. Mantz finished with six first half points and Joe Schwalm five for the well-balanced E-town offense.
Eastern crept back into the game behind the early half scoring of Alex Nelson. At 17.5 points per contest, Nelson led the Eagles in scoring average coming into play Saturday. He only helped that average by scoring nine points in the first half and 16 in the second for a game-high total of 25. Nelson took 19 shots and hit 10 of them. The 6-foot-4 forward opened the second half by hitting each of Eastern's first three baskets. He was also responsible for the jumper that put the visitors in front for the first time all afternoon, 38-36 with 14:55 remaining.
Elizabethtown matched Eastern's intensity, however, getting a Ben Cable mid-range jumper to go down off an inbounds pass from Joe Renzi and another Schlosser triple, also from Renzi, to reclaim the lead at 41-38 with 13:22 to go.
A questionable flagrant foul call on Eckert for an elbow off an offensive rebound just under a minute later had the Blue Jay faithful in disbelief, but it only briefly stemmed the tide as Michael Donatoni brought EU within one after hitting both free throws. The Jays had worked their advantage back to six courtesy of a Mantz tip-in with 6:30 left.
Though the Blue Jays controlled most of Saturday's game, but all Eastern's upperclassmen needed was 2:32 to reverse their fortunes. Collin Whipple drilled a three, Donatoni hit three free throws, Soaries had a pair of layups and the Eagles outscored E-town 12-0 during that stretch to turn a 60-55 deficit into a 67-60 lead with little more than a half minute left on the clock.
Whipple scored 13 points to help Nelson and Soaries with a bulk of the Eastern scoring. Nine of Whipple's points came in the second half, where Eastern held a 48-40 advantage. The Eagles got just nine points from their bench with Kyle Malloy scoring five points and Dan Werth four.
Schlosser backed up his nine first half points with 10 more in the second to score a team-high 19. The final total was one off his career-high 20, set earlier this season at Susquehanna. The pure-shooting guard was 5-of-6 from 3-point range, also just one off his career-high. Mantz had 13 points and a game-high nine rebounds, while Schwalm and Kyle McConnell each had 11 points. McConnell also added three assists, bringing his career total to 298. He is just seven assists shy of cracking E-town's career top 10 list in that category.
Freshman Phil Wenger, who started his eighth straight game, led all players with five assists, helping E-town tie a season-high as a team with 19 in the game. Cable finished with seven points, all in the final 20 minutes.
Commonwealth Conference play starts up again this coming week as Widener visits Thompson Gymnasium Wednesday evening at 8 p.m. The Jays will travel to Albright next Saturday afternoon.
ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. — The luxury of having five senior starters paid off late for visiting Eastern University in its men's basketball game against the Elizabethtown Blue Jays Saturday afternoon at Thompson Gymnasium. Martin Soaries, one of those five, took over scoring 10 of his 15 points in the final 5:04 to help the Eagles snatch a win away from the Blue Jays, 72-69.
In its bid to win a fourth straight game on its own court, Elizabethtown (4-8) did everything it needed to do from the start. Andrew Mantz made a pretty spin move to the middle of the lane and dropped in two points on the Jays' opening possession, a basket that began a 13-point day for the sophomore from Sunbury.
Freshman Will Schlosser checked in to the game at the seven minute mark of the first half and immediately began terrorizing the Eagles (8-4) from deep. The E-town native sank two high-arcing rainbow 3-pointers around a Lee Ecker jumper which he also assisted on. The second of those 3-pointers gave the Blue Jays their largest lead of the half at 12 points (19-7).
The Jays would never trail in the half, as Eastern shot just 9-of-30 (30%). The Blue Jays, meanwhile, hit 44% (11-of-25) of their field goal attempts and picked up five steals to lead 29-24 at the break. Schlosser hit another three later in the half to finish the opening 20 minutes 3-for-3 from outside. Mantz finished with six first half points and Joe Schwalm five for the well-balanced E-town offense.
Eastern crept back into the game behind the early half scoring of Alex Nelson. At 17.5 points per contest, Nelson led the Eagles in scoring average coming into play Saturday. He only helped that average by scoring nine points in the first half and 16 in the second for a game-high total of 25. Nelson took 19 shots and hit 10 of them. The 6-foot-4 forward opened the second half by hitting each of Eastern's first three baskets. He was also responsible for the jumper that put the visitors in front for the first time all afternoon, 38-36 with 14:55 remaining.
Elizabethtown matched Eastern's intensity, however, getting a Ben Cable mid-range jumper to go down off an inbounds pass from Joe Renzi and another Schlosser triple, also from Renzi, to reclaim the lead at 41-38 with 13:22 to go.
A questionable flagrant foul call on Eckert for an elbow off an offensive rebound just under a minute later had the Blue Jay faithful in disbelief, but it only briefly stemmed the tide as Michael Donatoni brought EU within one after hitting both free throws. The Jays had worked their advantage back to six courtesy of a Mantz tip-in with 6:30 left.
Though the Blue Jays controlled most of Saturday's game, but all Eastern's upperclassmen needed was 2:32 to reverse their fortunes. Collin Whipple drilled a three, Donatoni hit three free throws, Soaries had a pair of layups and the Eagles outscored E-town 12-0 during that stretch to turn a 60-55 deficit into a 67-60 lead with little more than a half minute left on the clock.
Whipple scored 13 points to help Nelson and Soaries with a bulk of the Eastern scoring. Nine of Whipple's points came in the second half, where Eastern held a 48-40 advantage. The Eagles got just nine points from their bench with Kyle Malloy scoring five points and Dan Werth four.
Schlosser backed up his nine first half points with 10 more in the second to score a team-high 19. The final total was one off his career-high 20, set earlier this season at Susquehanna. The pure-shooting guard was 5-of-6 from 3-point range, also just one off his career-high. Mantz had 13 points and a game-high nine rebounds, while Schwalm and Kyle McConnell each had 11 points. McConnell also added three assists, bringing his career total to 298. He is just seven assists shy of cracking E-town's career top 10 list in that category.
Freshman Phil Wenger, who started his eighth straight game, led all players with five assists, helping E-town tie a season-high as a team with 19 in the game. Cable finished with seven points, all in the final 20 minutes.
Commonwealth Conference play starts up again this coming week as Widener visits Thompson Gymnasium Wednesday evening at 8 p.m. The Jays will travel to Albright next Saturday afternoon.