DOYLESTOWN (PA) – Alvernia University scored the final nine points of the game as the defending Commonwealth Conference champion Crusaders picked up a 73-66 road win over Freedom Conference preseason favorite Delaware Valley College.
Alvernia improved to 4-2 overall while the Aggies saw their three-game winning streak come to an end as they fell to 3-3. Delaware Valley will begin conference play on Wednesday, December 3 when it travels to Wilkes-Barre to battle King's College.
The Aggies went on a 12-0 run to erase a 10-point deficit and take a 66-64 lead with 3:20 remaining. Barry Brockington began the spurt with a pair of free throws with 5:58 remaining and Nick Sullivan followed with a 3-pointer. Jay Donovan hit a layup after the Crusaders turned the ball over and Brockington added a layup. Brockington then ended the run with a 3-pointer for the two-point advantage.
Both teams missed opportunities over the next 90 seconds before Alvernia took control. Harrison Deyo hit a follow-up with 1:51 left on the clock to tie the game and he followed with another layup 43 seconds later. The Aggies turned the ball over on their next two possessions and the Crusaders turned them into three points with a breakaway layup by Charles Cooper and one free throw by Mike Miller for a 71-66 contest. Delaware Valley missed a long trey and Miller added two foul shots for the seven-point win.
The first half was a back and forth affair that featured nine ties and saw neither team hold a lead larger than four points. The teams went into the break tied at 35 after Deyo hit a monster follow-up jam just inside the buzzer. It was the 10th offensive rebound in the stanza for Alvernia as it held a 10-2 advantage in second-chance points. Both teams shot better than 44 percent in the first 20 minutes with the Aggies going 5-for-10 from beyond the arc.
The opening 10 minutes of the second half was much the same as Delaware Valley's largest lead was three while the Crusaders had a five-point advantage at one point. That was at 55-50 with 10:34 to go and Delaware Valley cut into it two minutes later on a Jose Ortiz layup.
Alvernia then scored seven of the next nine points, including treys from Miller and Cooper for a 64-54 lead with 7:17 remaining. The Aggies' big run soon followed, but the Crusaders answered down the stretch for the win.
Alvernia went to the foul line 23 times compared to just nine by Delaware Valley and it hit 11 of those shots (seven by the Aggies). The Crusaders held a 41-35 advantage on the board while the Aggies hurt themselves with 17 turnovers in the game.
Deyo had a big afternoon as he finished with 20 points and 13 rebounds in the full 40 minutes as Alvernia played just six guys, including the same five for the entire second half. Lamont Clark added 16 points and eight boards while Cooper and Miller had 13 points apiece.
Delaware Valley, which was without starting center Manny Ochenje, received 38 of its 66 points off the bench. Francis Arnold was one of them as he had 14 points while Ortiz and Donovan came off the pine to notch 13 and 11 points respectively. Brockington's first start of the year saw him score 14 points while Chris Moran had six points, 12 rebounds and three blocked shots.