It has been 51 Sundays since the Lancaster Bible men's basketball team lost in the North Eastern Athletic Conference Final to Morrisville State last season. Each week since then, the Chargers worked to get back to the NEAC Final on this Sunday. Unfortunately for Lancaster Bible, it will be another 51 Sundays before they get the chance to capture the NEAC title as the Chargers lost for the second straight season on their home floor as SUNY Cobleskill won its first NEAC Men's Basketball title, 49-46 at Horst Athletic Center.
The loss drops Lancaster Bible to 24-3 this season and the Chargers will now turn their attention to the NCCAA Playoffs. Lancaster Bible will host Valley Forge on Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. in the NCCAA East Region Final. The winner of that game will advance to the NCCAA Division II National Tournament in Circleville, Ohio which will be held from March 11-14.
Sunday's game was a nail-biter for 40 minutes as neither team held a lead larger than six. Over the final 17:54 of the game, no lead was bigger than four and the game featured 10 lead changes and six ties.
Lancaster Bible came out of the gate well as they took a 7-2 lead with 15:58 to play on an unbelievable play by junior CJ Dunston. Off a missed shot, Dunston grabbed the rebound in the air and slammed it home to give the Chargers a five-point lead. The Chargers struggled to score after Dunston's dunk though and managed only four points over the next seven minutes. SUNY Cobleskill cut its deficit to just two, 11-9, on a layup by Cortrell King with 8:57 left in the opening half.
Junior Jordan Mellinger hit a 3-pointer on Lancaster Bible's next possession to give the Chargers a 14-9 lead and after another King bucket for SUNY Cobleskill, senior Corey Leonard drained another 3-pointer for the Chargers and gave Lancaster Bible its biggest lead of the game at 17-11 with 7:14 remaining in the first half.
After Leonard's 3-pointer, it was once again SUNY Cobleskill's turn to make a run as the Fighting Tigers used an 11-2 run over the next 3:08 to take a 22-19 lead with 4:06 to play in the first half. Not to be outdone, Lancaster Bible finished the half on a 9-0 run to take a 28-22 lead into halftime. Lancaster Bible shot 12-of-27 (44.4 percent) in the opening half, while SUNY Cobleskill was 10-of-28 (35.7 percent).
The Fighting Tigers slowly chipped away again at the deficit and got over the hump when they took a 32-31 lead with 14:24 remaining thanks to a layup from Travis Woods. The Chargers suffered through a scoring drought of 5:36 during the middle of the half, but SUNY Cobleskill only scored once as well during that stretch and when Leonard hit a layup and was fouled, his made free throw tied the game at 34-34 with exactly 10 minutes to play.
SUNY Cobleskill took its biggest lead of the game at 38-34 with 8:39 to play on a layup from Bryan Backus, but the Chargers answered right back with a 3-pointer from Dunston and a layup from Leonard that gave Lancaster Bible a 39-38 lead with 7:42 remaining.
As the pressure and noise grew in Horst Athletic Center, the two teams battled hard for every point and with the Chargers trailing 45-43, Albert Suniga drove the length of the floor for Lancaster Bible and converted an acrobatic layup to tie the game and was fouled in the process. He converted the free throw to give Lancaster Bible a 46-45 lead with 2:30 to play.
Both teams had back-to-back empty possessions, including a missed free throw for the Chargers, before Woods converted another layup with 47 seconds to play to give the Fighting Tigers a 47-46 lead. Lancaster Bible turned the ball over on its next possession and two made free throws from SUNY Cobleskill freshman Malik Chambers gave the Fighting Tigers a 49-46 advantage with 22 seconds remaining.
The final 22 seconds were crazy as Dunston missed a 3-pointer, but got his own rebound only to see the Chargers turn the ball over with six remaining. SUNY Cobleskill gave the Chargers another chance though as Backus turned the ball over to Naheer Mirza with three seconds remaining. Dunston received the ball from Mirza and his deep 3-pointer from the wing clanked the back of the rim as time expired.
Some Lancaster Bible players returned to the bench after the final buzzer, while others simply fell to the ground as they watched SUNY Cobleskill celebrate at half court.
The Chargers shot just 5-of-19 (26.3 percent) in the second half and their 18 points scored tied a season-low for points in a half. Lancaster Bible shot 17-of-46 (37 percent) for the game, its second lowest shooting percentage of the season.
"We tried to break the zone, but I think their length bothered us and we were hesitant a little too often," Lancaster Bible Head Coach Marshal Tague. "I thought we got enough good looks, they just didn't go in."
Leonard finished with a team-high 12 points, while Dunston added 11 points, 12 rebounds, three steals and two blocks. Jordan Mellinger chipped in with eight points and three steals and Naheer Mirza had six points and four steals.
"Both teams played really well defensively, they just made a few more little plays throughout the game," Tague said.
Lancaster Bible and SUNY Cobleskill each had 27 rebounds for the game, while the Fighting Tigers grabbed 11 offensive rebounds to the Chargers' eight. Tague wasn't displeased with the discrepancy of the number of offensive rebounds, but thought SUNY Cobleskill was more productive with their second chances.
"Cobleskill's offensive rebounds seemed to lead to points, but our offensive boards didn't," Tague said.
The Fighting Tigers were led by senior Alexis Nunez who had 19 points and was named NEAC Tournament MVP for his 52 points over the two games this weekend. King added 11 points for SUNY Cobleskill and Woods had eight points, all of them coming in the second half.
Lancaster Bible now finds itself in the same position as last season as the Chargers will try and rebound quickly from a devastating loss to capture the NCCAA East Region Championship. Last year, Lancaster Bible took out its frustration on Valley Forge as the Chargers won, 72-48 and punched their ticket to the NCCAA National Tournament. A much improved Valley Forge team awaits this season however and the Chargers will need to play well if they are to advance to the National Tournament. Lancaster Bible defeated Valley Forge, 76-69 on January 20 of this year.
Notes:
-Sunday's win was the first for SUNY Cobleskill over Lancaster Bible. The Chargers had previously been 5-0 against the Fighting Tigers.
-With his 11 points, CJ Dunston is now just 13 points from 1,000 for his career.
-SUNY Cobleskill will find out who their NCAA Division III First Round opponent is on Monday.