Box Score

FREDERICK, Md. – In a season when the Lycoming College men’s basketball team has already tied a school record by playing in four overtimes, maybe it was no surprise that it would not take just one, but two overtimes to clinch its second straight Commonwealth Conference playoff berth with a 97-95 win over Hood on Saturday, Feb. 16 at the BB&T Arena.
 
The Warriors seemed to keep playing catchup throughout the second half and first overtime, leading Hood for a total of 15 seconds in that 22-minute stretch, but long-distance prayers kept getting answered, as sophomore Pat Dougher (Scotch Plains, N.J./Scotch Plains-Fanwood) calmly knocked down a triple with seven seconds left to send the game to overtime and senior Anthony Martin (Detroit, Mich./Christ the King) banked in a leaning 3-pointer with four seconds left in the first overtime to cap a furious rally.
 
Finally, in the second overtime, it was the Warriors’ solid free throw shooting that helped it pull through, with Dougher canning two free throws after being fouled as he drove the lane, giving Lycoming a 96-95 lead with 37 seconds left. After a Hood turnover on the inbounds, senior Jerald Williams (Riverdale, Md./Bladensburg) hit the back end of his free throws to make up the final margin.
 
The Warriors (16-9 overall, 10-8 Commonwealth) stood tall with their final defensive possession, despite the Blazers (14-11 overall, 8-10 Commonwealth) getting three offensive rebounds. Finally, in the final three seconds, junior Michael Rudy (Danville, Pa./Danville Area) showed off why he is the league leader in blocks, stuffing Hood’s final two attempts.
 
“It was a lot of hard work,” Lycoming head coach Guy Rancourt said. “The guys did a lot of hard work knowing what they had to do with that last possession. They did a good job of getting together when it was too loud and they couldn’t hear me to know what they had to do defensively.”
 
With the 50-minute barnburner behind it, Lycoming earned the No. 3 seed in the Commonwealth Conference playoffs, holding the head-to-head tiebreaker with Arcadia, which also finished 10-8 in league play, and will have to play in the play-in game on Monday night, Feb. 18, in the first round game against Stevenson, which clinched the No. 5 seed with a 93-75 win over Lebanon Valley.
 
“They just worked their tails off and I couldn’t be prouder,” Rancourt said.
 
Lycoming, with the first round bye, will head to Albright for the Commonwealth Conference semifinals as the No. 3 seed to face the No. 2 seed on Wednesday, Feb. 20, at 7 p.m.
 
Martin finished with a career-high 35 points, hitting all 11 of his free throws, and also nailing 11 field goals. Rudy added 17 points, seven rebounds, five blocks, leaving him one shy of the school record of 55 set by Matt Stackhouse in 2002-03. Freshman William Wingate (Philadelphia, Pa./Mastery Charter) notched 14 points, five rebounds, four assists and two blocks and both sophomore Chris Foreman (Union, N.J./Union) and Dougher posted 11 points.
 
Williams added several more milestones to an already dizzyingly long resume, as he broke his own school record for steals in a season, posting four against the Blazers to give him 87 on the season, three more than his previous best of 84 set in 2009-10. He also posted eight assists in the season, giving him 250 on the season, making him the 16^th player in Division III history to post that many in a season. He also finished the game with 329 career steals, moving past Alex Franz of St. Mary’s (Md.) (2008-11) for 10^th in NCAA Division III history.
 
Down by eight points with 2:37 left in the first overtime after a deep 3-pointer as the shot clock expired by Cameron Cook, the Warriors worked back into the game. Martin hit a pair of free throws to make it a six-point game and after a free throw from Cook, Martin dialed up a 3-pointer to make it a four-point game. The Warriors’ forced a backcourt steal, but turned the ball back over, leading to a fastbreak dunk by Reggie Daniels, making it a six-point game with 1:36 left. Another pair of free throws from Cook made it an eight-point game with just 1:03 left.
 
From there, the Warriors rallied with a 10-2 run, as Martin hit a pair of free throws with 40 seconds left. After two missed Hood free throws, Martin drove the lane to make it 85-81 with 22 seconds left. After a foul, Justin Stone hit the front end of a pair, but Foreman responded, dribbling over a screen and canning a 3-pointer with 14 seconds left to make it a two-point game. Justin Bowens hit the back end of his pair of ensuing free throws, setting up Martin’s bomb that sent the game to double overtime.
 
Each team hit a pair of buckets in the first two minutes of overtime, but Lycoming put the game on the see-saw when Wingate was fouled as he hit a lay-up and he completed the old-fashioned 3-point play with 3:16 left.
 
After each team had a possession, Trey Quinn ran the lane and connected for Hood, but Lycoming responded, as Rudy tipped in a Warrior jumper to make it 94-93 with 1:12 left. Daniels answered with an open jumper with 56 seconds left, setting up Dougher’s free throws that sealed Lycoming’s win.
 
Hood took a nine-point lead with 12:35 left at 54-45, but a 12-3 run by Lycoming tied the game, as Martin had four points and Dougher had six during the run, tying the game at 57 with 9:36 left. Hood didn’t let go of the lead, though, and took a five-point lead with 2:57 left at 66-61. However, Lycoming responded, as Rudy hit a layup and after a turnover, Martin drove in for a layup and was fouled, posting a 3-point play to make it 66-66 with 2:10 left.
 
Justin Bowens hit a 3-pointer with 1:34 left to give Hood a 3-point lead. Each team hit a free throw in the ensuing 1:17, with Quinn hitting the front end of a pair to make it 70-67 with 18 seconds left, setting up Dougher’s 3-pointer on a dish from Martin with seven seconds left. As time expired in regulation, Martin blocked a layup attempt, sending the game to its dramatic conclusion.
 
Hood was led by 27 points from Cook, 16 points and six rebounds from Daniels and 15 points from Matt Galloway. Stone posted 12 points, 13 rebounds and five steals and Bowens notched 14 points, seven rebounds and four steals. Quinn notched seven points, 11 assists and three steals.