ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. — Lycoming came into Wednesday night's Commonwealth Conference men's basketball game against the Elizabethtown College Blue Jays a top 25 team in the country in scoring offense. E-town was able to limit that offense for awhile, but the visiting Warriors raced away with 50 second-half points to drop the Blue Jays 88-71 at Thompson Gymnasium.

Strong starts from Lee Eckert and Joe Schwalm, both of whom scored 10 points and snagged five rebounds before halftime, kept the Blue Jays (1-6, 0-4 CC) in the thick of things after a period of play. With eight more points from Ben Cable (2-of-4 from 3-point range) and seven off the bench by Andrew Mantz, four players combined to tally 35 of E-town's 36 first-half points, as they trailed by a pair at the break.

Lycoming, which trailed only the Blue Jays in 3-pointers made within the Commonwealth Conference, did most of its damage in the paint in the second half. The visitors outscored Elizabethtown 22-14 down low and had pounded the glass for an 11-2 advantage in second chance points.

Forwards Kevin Anthony and Michael Rudy were the beneficiaries, each scoring 10 points in the half. Anthony finished with a game-high 16, while Rudy had 14, Chris Foreman 12 and Patrick Dougher 10.

Elizabethtown had the game tied at 40-40 with 18:52 to play after Andrew Mantz hit the second of two free throws, but the Warriors (6-1, 3-0 CC) scored eight of the next 10 points in the next 2:32 to take their biggest lead to that point, 50-42.

Eckert drew the home side back within three at 57-54 when he laid in a pass from Phil Wenger with little more than 12:30 to go. Lycoming responded in short order with lay-ups from William Wingate and Dougher, and a 3-pointer by Rudy.

The Warriors went up by double digits for good on a Dougher three with 9:22 remaining. Over the next 8 minutes, Lycoming pulled away with a 15-5 run.

In the first half, it looked the Blue Jays might be on upset alert against the team picked second in the Commonwealth Conference Preseason Coaches Poll and receiving votes in the latest d3hoops.com Top 25 poll. Schwalm scored seven of his 10 first-half points in the first 5:03 and Cable's lay-up at the 13:47 mark forced Warriors' coach Guy Rancourt to use a 30-second timeout down 12-4.

Bob Schlosser's squad led most of the way in the first half, but another Rudy triple gave Lycoming a lead it would not give up over the final 3:07.

Cable hit four of his eight 3-point attempts to finish with at eam-high 14 points. Eckert and Schwalm both finished with 12 and Mantz added 10. Senior guard Joe Renzi set new career-highs of eight assists and four steals.

Free throws were once again an issue for the Jays, who entered the game eighth out of 10 teams in the league with a 57.7% success rate. On this night, they knocked down just 7-of-15 for 46.7%.

The top two teams in the league in 3-pointers made and attempted, Elizabethtown and Lycoming weren't shy about letting it fly Wednesday. Lycoming went 8-of-22 from deep, slightly better than the Jays' 8-of-24 effort.

Lycoming guard Jerald Williams filled up the stat sheet with seven points, eight assists, seven steals and five rebounds. Williams moved to within 29 assists of breaking the Middle Atlantic Conference record and is just 17 steals shy of cracking the top 25 career leaders in NCAA Division III history. His teammate, Anthony, secured 10 rebounds to leave Thompson Gym as the only player on either side with a double-double.

Elizabethtown, which dropped to 1-6 overall, and 0-4 in the Commonwealth Conference, with the loss, will one more time to grab a win before the New Year on its home court. The Jays host Hood Saturday at 4 p.m.