Box Score

READING, Pa. – When the lead started to fall out of the Lycoming College men’s basketball’s hands, it was no surprise that the team put the ball in the hands of senior Anthony Martin (Detroit, Mich./Christ the King) and he provided seven of the team’s last 12 points, helping the third-seeded Warriors upset No. 2 seed Albright, 80-78, in the Commonwealth Conference semifinals at the Bollman Center on Wednesday night, Feb. 20.
 
The Warriors (17-9 overall) advance to the conference championship game for the second straight year, heading to Alvernia (21-4 overall), the top-ranked team in the Mid-Atlantic Region, on Saturday, Feb. 23.
 
Martin kept the Warriors in the game after Albright took a 70-68, tying the game with an 18-footer and then giving Lycoming the lead back with a floater in the paint with 4:58 left. After Albright took the lead back with free throws, he elevated for another floater in the lane, giving Lycoming a 74-73 lead with less than four minutes left.
 
A free throw gave Lycoming a two-point lead, but Kyle Jordan gave Albright the lead back with an old-fashioned 3-point play from Kyle Jordan. Wingate hit a pair of free throws, though, to give Lycoming the lead back before Zach Benjamin hit a layup inside. An offensive rebound helped send Rudy to the line, where he hit a pair of free throws with 2:04 left, giving Lycoming a 79-78 lead.
 
From there, the Warrior defense clamped down, forcing two missed shots to take the clock under a minute and after senior Jerald Williams (Riverdale, Md./Bladensburg) missed a layup with 39 seconds left, he got his own rebound and the Lions were forced to foul. However, Lycoming missed both before Albright missed a running jumper in the lane with seven seconds left and Martin pulled down the rebound. Martin hit the front end of a pair of free throws and Albright’s desperation 3-pointer fell off the mark.
 
“The transition was so important,” Lycoming head coach Guy Rancourt said. “Our guys did a great job taking the transition away from them.”
 
Freshman William Wingate (Philadelphia, Pa./Mastery Charter) led the Warriors offensively, posting his second double-double of the year with a career-high 22 points to go with 11 rebounds, as he hit 9-of-15 from the floor.
 
“Will was the energizer bunny,” Rancourt said. “He’s having some wrist issues, so we kept subbing him out to make sure he was OK. But he’s a trooper and he kept playing. I’m real proud of him.”
 
Three others reached double figures, as juniors Michael Rudy (Danville, Pa./Danville Area) and Kevin Anthony (Columbus, Ohio/Bridgton Academy) each scored 14 and Martin finished with 12. Rudy, with six blocked shots, not only tied the school record for blocks in a game for the second time this year, but also broke the school record for blocks in a season. He finished the game with 60 blocks, five more than the record of 55 set by Matt Stackhouse in 2002-03. Anthony also posted seven rebounds and a block, as Lycoming held a 57-51 advantage on the glass.
 
Williams also played fantastically, falling a point shy of a triple-double, notching nine points, 11 assists and 12 rebounds. He also added two steals, while the 11 assists moved him into fifth in the NCAA Division III history with 821 in his career and into the top 10 in NCAA Division III history with 261 assists this season.
 
The Lions jumped out to a 13-8 lead in the game’s opening six minutes, with Pedro Perez scoring four points in a row, capping the run with a pair of free throws with 14:13 left. Lycoming responded, though, with a 23-6 run, as Wingate started the run with a pair of layups and senior Anthony Martin (Detroit, Mich./Christ the King) ended the run with a layup to make it 31-19 with 6:04 left.
 
Six points from Dave Singleton got Albright back into the game in the final six minutes of the half, though, as it went on its own run, scoring 17 of the half’s final 25 points to head into the break down 39-36.
 
Lycoming got out to a quick start in the second half, as Wingate hit a pair of layups to sandwich a fastbreak layup from Rudy, giving Lycoming a 45-36 lead just two minutes into the period. Albright made its move as the clock moved under 11 minutes, closing a seven-point gap at 58-51 to a tie at 61 with 8:27 left.
 
The Warriors got four points back, though, as Williams hit a pair of free throws and Wingate knocked down a fastbreak dunk. Albright again fought back, though, going on a 9-3 run to take the lead on a fastbreak layup from Sam Marella with 5:53 left, setting up Martin’s heroics.
 
Albright had three players finish with 20 points, as Singleton posted 21 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, Kyle Jordan added 20 points, 18 rebounds and four blocks and Pedro Perez posted 20 points and nine rebounds. Benjamin added 13 points and seven rebounds.