November 30, 2011
In a battle of undefeated teams that went down to the wire, the Lycoming College Warriors (5-0, 1-0 Commonwealth Conference) edged out the Albright College men's basketball team (3-1, 0-1) by the final score of 84-82 in a conference opener on Wednesday evening in the Bollman Center.
In a dramatic finish, Albright's Shane Irwin and Lycoming's Kevin Anthony traded baskets with under a minute left, and an Albright turnover resulted in a layup by Lycoming's Mike Bradley that gave the visitors an 83-82 lead with 28 seconds remaining. A tough travel call was whistled on Cornell Mickens, and the ball went to Lycoming with 10 seconds on the clock. After a missed free throw by Bradley, Irwin missed a jumper and Mickens was too strong on a tip-in on Albright's final possession.
In the first half, Albright jumped out to a 7-0 advantage. The run was capped off a little over a minute into action on a transition dunk from Kyle Jordan that got the crowd on its feet. The Lions kept pushing and a tip-in from Derek Hall off a missed jumper from Jordan gave the home team a 13-4 lead at the 16:47 mark.
Lycoming gradually chipped away at the lead as the teams traded baskets back and forth. The Warriors cut the advantage to two as Anthony Martin hit a jumper to make it a 23-21 ballgame. Albright responded, however, in the form of a 7-0 run and pushed the lead to 30-21 on two free throws by Zach Benjamin with 8:46 to play.
The Lions established their first double-digit lead one-and-a-half minutes later as Benjamin converted a layup on a nice feed from Shane Irwin to give Albright a 35-24 advantage. Lycoming again responded with an 8-2 run of their own, and a dunk from Anthony cut the deficit to 37-32 with six minutes left.
Albright went on the final run in the initial stanza. After grabbing an offensive rebound, Jordan extended the lead to 44-35 on three-point play with 4:30 to go, and the home team took a 49-41 advantage into the break.
Things slowed down offensively in the second half. The Warriors used back-to-back jumpers from Martin and Anthony to trim the lead to 54-52 with 15:58 to play, but the Lions responded as Sam Marrella dished to Jordan for a layup.
Albright continued to hold the lead until Jerald Williams gave Lycoming their first lead of the game on a layup with 11:07 on the clock. Down by three, the Lions responded with a three-point play by Benjamin, and Reuel Moore converted on a three-point shot on Albright's next possession to give the home side the lead.
The back-and-forth battle continued as Albright held a slim advantage. With 3:15 to go, Hall hit a jumper to give the Lions a 77-75 lead to set up the dramatic finish.
Albright had four scorers in double figures. Jordan finished with a double-double of 15 points and 11 rebounds, and Mickens shot 6-for-10 and also finished with 15 points. Irwin recorded 13 points while Moore came off the bench to record 11 points. Marrella dished out a team-high six assists.
Lycoming was led by Anthony's 28 points on 12-for-14 shooting. Also finishing in double figures for the Warriors were Martin with 18 points and Williams with 12.
The Lions will return to action on Saturday when they travel to Chester to take on Widener University at 3 p.m.
Loading...
36 videos
Link to this comment:
All Comments (0)