Box Score

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – Lycoming College senior Jerald Williams (Riverdale, Md./Bladensberg) entered Sunday, Dec. 16’s men’s basketball game against King’s College needing 11 assists to break the Commonwealth Conference’s career record for assists. He got 13 and added 10 points for his third double-double of the season to lead the Warriors to their eighth straight win, a 74-65 triumph over the Monarchs at Lamade Gym.
 
“I think he is the best player in the league,” Lycoming College head coach Guy Rancourt, who picked up his 75^th win at the College, said. “He’s a difference maker. He’s the reason that we’ve consistently been one of the top teams over the last several years. I am real proud of him.”
 
Williams surpassed the mark of 668 career assists, set by Lebanon Valley’s Mike Rhoads from 1992-95, on a fastbreak dish in the lane to senior Anthony Martin (Detroit, Mich./Christ the King), who drained a 16-footer from the left side with 11:03 left. He finished the game with 671 assists in his career, which is tied for 18^th in NCAA Division III history.
 
“I honestly didn’t know I was going to break any records,” Williams said. “I just came in and wanted to win ball games. That’s all that was on my mind coming in as a freshmen.”
 
The 5-11 point guard was one of four Warriors (9-1 overall) in double figures as the team won its eighth straight game. Junior Kevin Anthony (Columbus, Ohio/Bridgton Academy) led the team with 16 points and both junior Justin Miller (Agawam, Mass./Bridgton Academy) and senior Ihsaan Davis (Jamaica, N.Y./Christ the King) each added 14. Miller’s 14 was a career high and he added eight rebounds and two blocks and Davis added six rebounds and three 3-pointers.
 
The teams played nip-and-tuck throughout most of the first half. The Warriors used a seven-point run to take a six-point lead at 16-10 with 13:08 left thanks to a 3-pointer and two assists from Williams, but King’s responded and tied the game twice in the next five minutes. Lycoming got the lead back to eight, thanks to an 8-0 run, as Anthony scored six during the run, but King’s scored seven to make it 27-26 with 5:12 left in the half.
 
The Warriors closed the half on an 11-4 run as Davis hit a pair of 3-pointers in the last five minutes and sophomore Patrick Dougher (Scotch Plains, N.J./Scotch Plains-Fanwood) added a trey as time expired in the half to help Lycoming take a 38-30 lead into the break.
 
Lycoming kept the pressure on, scoring the first nine points of the second half and getting the lead to as many as 19 after a layup by Michael Rudy (Danville, Pa./Danville Area) made it 55-36 with 14:05 left.
 
“We knew we had to get stops coming out of halftime,” Williams said. “We just wanted to come out and make a run in the first five minutes (of the second half) and that’s what we did and went up 19.”
 
Williams posted six assists in the first half and jumpstarted the team in the second half, getting four assists on the team’s first seven buckets in the half to tie the record on a jumper by Miller with 14:47 left before breaking the record three minutes later.
 
The Monarchs wouldn’t go away, though, using a 25-6 run over the next 10 minutes to pull within three points after a layup by Tom Heston. The Warriors answered though, as Miller hit a layup, and after a missed King’s 3-pointer, Williams found Dougher open from the right side for a deep 3-pointer, making it an eight-point game with 2:48 left. The Warriors hit five free throws down the stretch to close out the win, never letting the Monarchs back within six points.
 
“King’s is a difficult team to prepare for,” Rancourt said. “They set a ton of screens, they are very good at shooting the three and they space you out very well. They are very similar to Messiah. That game probably helped us in preparation for this.”
 
The Warriors put forth another strong defensive effort, holding King’s to 38 percent from the floor and 32 percent from 3-point range. The team also forced 21 turnovers and picked up 11 steals, including four from Williams, while the Monarchs forced Lycoming into just 14 turnovers, as the Warriors held a 20-9 advantage in second-chance points.
 
Dougher finished with seven points and five rebounds and Martin posted six points, two assists and two blocks.
 
Kyle Hammonds led the Monarchs with 13 points and three assists and Mike Foster posted 11 points and five rebounds. Tom Heston finished with eight points and 17 rebounds and Alex Cardoza added four points and six assists.
 
The Warriors will look for their ninth straight win after the Holiday break when they face Cairn at 6 p.m. in the opening round of the third annual Louis Fleming Basinger Memorial Tournament on Saturday, Dec. 29.