ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. – Elizabethtown College men's basketball opened Monday's rescheduled Commonwealth Conference game against Arcadia with 12 unanswered points, but had to sweat it out late. Lee Eckert scored four of his team-high 22 points in the final minutes to help put away the Knights, 81-76, at Thompson Gymnasium.

For the first 10 minutes of the second half, the Blue Jays (8-13, 5-9 CC) looked to have a firm grasp on a regular season series sweep of Arcadia –potentially their third such sweep since the two became conference foes starting with the 2008-09 season.

That all changed when the Knights (7-14, 2-12 CC) started popping threes from all over. Mike Fitzpatrick started a run that saw four different Arcadia players hit 3-pointers and the team score 15 straight points off of them. Torrell Candelaria hit the last two to pull his team within 66-63 with 4:27 to play.

Joe Brown, who totaled a game-high 27 points, and John Landro hit from deep in between. As a team, Arcadia was 8-for-17 (47.1%) in the final half after shooting just 30% on 10 shots in the first. Half of its field goals in the second half came from beyond the arc.

To break a four-game losing skid, Elizabethtown had to be composed down the stretch. It was, even when the Knights would seemingly answer every basket made or free throws hit by the Blue Jays.

A layup from Eckert with 52 seconds increased the Jays' lead from four to six (75-69) and pushed him over the 20-point mark for the fourth time this season. Brown would miss on a fall away 3-point attempt at the other end, Eckert there to clean up the rebound before walking to the line and calmly sinking a pair that put the game nearly out of reach with just over half a minute left.

Eckert, Joe Schwalm and Andrew Mantz were at the forefront of E-town's early explosion. Eckert scored the first four points and Schwalm connected on two 3-pointers. Mantz had a block, four boards and an assist during a game-opening 12-0 run.

The only things able to contain Mantz on the glass Monday were fouls, as he picked up three. The players Arcadia coach Justin Scott threw out on the floor to body Mantz didn't fare so well. Elizabethtown's 6-foot-7 senior center from picked up eight of his game-high 13 rebounds before the half and actually had 11 rebounds before scoring his first points on a layup at 14:25 of the second half.

Mantz wound up scoring all 11 of his points in the second half for his sixth double-double this season and 16th of his career. The six double-dobules are Mantz's most in a season since recording six as a sophomore in 2011-12.

As has been the case in most of the blue and gray's wins this season, big plays came from numerous players, not just a few.

Tyler Simpkiss handed out six assists, most of any player on either side, and Phil Wenger ran his streak of games with four assists or more to four with a five-dime night. Wenger hit 9-of-10 free throws in scoring 16 points. He added four steals.

On the perimeter, Schwalm and Will Schlosser were the go-to guys. Schwalm netted 11 points on 3-of-6 shooting from three; Schlosser totaled nine on 3-of-5.

Rebounds were dead even between the teams at 32, as were steals at seven. The Blue Jays, shooting just 63 percent from the foul line this year, reaped the benefits of a near 70 percent night against Arcadia as they made 16-of-23 in the game.

Inside the comfort of its home gym, however, E-town was the better shooting team. The Jays hit 51.9% of their shots (27-of-52), their best mark in nine games, and were on the mark on 50% of their 3-point attempts (11-of-22), also their best in nine games going back to an 86-84 win over Lebanon Valley Jan. 8.

Brown ended with 27 points and 10 rebounds for the Knights. Candelaria, with 15, was the only other player in double figures for Arcadia. Mike Fitzpatrick scored all of his nine off three 3-pointers.

E-town's win pulled it within two games of the final playoff spot with four games to play, but the Blue Jays need to win, and have help in front of them to climb back into the race as the regular season hits the home stretch.

The Blue Jays will try to take another step towards that goal Wednesday when they head to Widener looking for a sweep of the Pride. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m.