Senior Malcolm Covington (Springfield Gardens, N.Y./Blessed Sacrament) was one of three Lycoming College men's basketball players in double figures, but Alvernia University shot 56 percent from the floor to post a 96-74 win in a Commonwealth Conference semifinal at Lamade Gym on Wednesday night, Feb. 25.
 
Covington finished with 16 points and six rebounds to lead the top-seeded Warriors, who finished the season with an 18-8 record, its best mark since 2011-12. Freshman Alex Newbold (Bowie, Md./DeMatha Catholic) finished with 11 points, six rebounds and four steals and sophomore Nykolas King (New York, N.Y./Manhattan Center for Science & Math) added 10 points, four rebounds and four assists.
 
The Warriors shot 39 percent (29-of-75) and took 18 more shots than the Crusaders (17-9 overall), who hit 32-of-57 and 13-of-23 from 3-point range (57 percent), led by a game-high 34 points and nine 3-pointers from Charles Cooper.
 
Alvernia moves on to face Stevenson in the conference championship game on Saturday, Feb. 28.
 
The Crusaders started the game with a  21-2 run over the game's first 10 minutes, as Cooper hit four 3-pointers to key the run. The Crusaders led by as many as 24 points in the first half at 41-17 with 3:50 left before the Warriors closed the half on a 13-7 run to make it 48-30 at the break.
 
In the second half, the Warriors continued to pressure, closing within 12 points thanks to an 8-2 run in the half's first four minutes. Freshman Justin Iton (Hackensack, N.J./Dwight Morrow) added hit a second chance layup to make it 50-38, but Alvernia responded with a traditional 3-point play by Harrison Deyo to key a 17-6 run that gave the Crusaders a 67-44 lead.
 
Lycoming cut the lead down to 14 with its own 18-9 run, with a fastbreak layup by Newbold made it 76-62 with 5:26 left, but Alvernia again responded with five straight points and Lycoming could not get closer the rest of the way.
 
Freshman Chris Wallace (Randallstown, Md./Calvert Hall) finished with nine points, six rebounds and three assists and senior Pat Dougher (Scotch Plains, N.J./Scotch Plains-Fanwood) added eight points and three assists. Junior John Monkam (Lanham, Md./DuVal) added five points.
 
Deyo finished with 23 points, 16 rebounds and four blocks, Mike Miller added 17 points and four 3-pointers and Lamont Clark posted 13 points, seven rebounds and seven assists for the Crusaders.
 
Covington finished his career 10th in school history with 221 assists, while he averaged 8.8 points and 2.6 rebounds in his two years with the program. With his two years at SUNY Orange factored in, he finished his career with 1062 points, 534 assists and 111 steals.
 
Dougher finishes his career tied for second in games played with 104 and he is fifth in 3-point field goal percentage (.383), seventh in 3-pointers made (176) and ninth in free throw percentage (.798). He added 815 career points and 256 rebounds.