Before embarking on this weekend's two pivotal North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) basketball home games, second-year Keuka head coach Thad Phillips stressed how important it was for his Storm to sweep both Lancaster Bible College and Penn State-Berks, especially if the Storm hoped to advance into the NEAC postseason tournament at the end of February.
Using an efficient and opportunistic offense and an attacking defense, the Storm executed Phillips' game plan and emerged with a 72-67 win over Berks Sunday afternoon inside the Weed Physical Arts Center.
Freshman Coty Paige (Rochester, NY/Greece Arcadia) scored 17 points with 7 rebounds and 3 steals and classmate Tyler Hixson (Shortsville, NY/Red Jacket) and junior Teddy Tuggles (Rochester, NY/Gates Chili) each added 11 points as Keuka (3-8, 3-1 NEAC) picked up its third straight conference victory.
Senior Brian Cunliffe (Rochester, NY/Gates Chili) handed out five assists and Tuggles added three assists as an unselfish Keuka offense had assists on 13 of its 25 field goals. Hixson grabbed a team-high eight rebounds while Paige snared seven boards and shot 7-for-12 from the field for the Storm, which shot 25-for-54 (46.3 percent) for the contest.
"It was a team effort today, we played together as a team and we had assists on more than 50 percent of our field goals. When you get that kind of sharing of the basketball, that's a great thing," Phillips said.
"We had big stops at the end of the game, took three charges last two minutes of the game, and that's a great thing. As long as we continue do to that, we'll be in okay shape."
In a back-and-forth first half, the Nittany Lions (1-9, 1-3 NEAC) led by as many as four points, including 35-31 with 1:09 left in the first half. The Storm closed out the stanza on a 7-2 run as Tuggles and freshman Trevor Healey (Wethersfield, CT/Wethersfield) each made a pair of free throws sandwiched around a '3' from freshman Jared Wagner (Pittsford, NY/McQuaid). Keuka led 38-37 going into the second half.
Trailing 43-42 three minutes into the second half, junior Conor Boyer (East Rochester, NY/East Rochester) made a layup and converted a three-point play for a 47-43 Storm lead. The advantage swelled to 54-47 on a jumper from Paige with 8:36 to play, but the Nittany Lions responded with a 10-4 run to pull within 58-57 with 4:16 remaining.
Paige and Cunliffe each buried three-pointers to extend the lead to 64-57, and Paige hit a pair of free throws with 34 seconds left to put Keuka ahead 70-65, and the Storm held on to complete the weekend sweep.
"We shot better today because we shared the ball more. Every game we're getting a little more comfortable offensively with each other and with the style we play," Phillips said.
"For a game and a half now, the second half of yesterday's win and today's game, we've done a marvelous job of having 15 guys battling to get done what we want to get done."
Freshman Joe Tortolon (Dundee, NY/Dundee) added nine points while Cunliffe had seven points and Boyer five points for Keuka. Jeff Schmidt finished with a game-high 21 points and 13 rebounds for Penn State-Berks, which had four players in double-figures.
Keuka returns to action with a 2 p.m. road game Saturday afternoon against Gallaudet before traveling to Penn State-Harrisburg for a noon clash on Sunday.