Lycoming holds off Knights in league battle

GLENSIDE, PA (01/15/11) – Despite having a 19 point lead at the 11:32 mark of the second half the Warriors of Lycoming College (12-4 Overall 2-4 Commonwealth) had to hold off 39-19 run by the Arcadia Men's Basketball Team the rest of way in order to pull out the hard fought 79-70 victory in today's Commonwealth Conference match up. The Knights (4-10 Overall 0-5 Commonwealth) battled the entire game, even after it seemed things were starting to unravel, they kept the Warriors on their toes down the stretch.

The first half featured six ties, four lead changes, and even after Lycoming extended their lead to nine at the 1:08 the Knights were able to respond with four inside points from Colin McCarthy '12 (Langhorne, PA/Holy Ghost Prep) and Darrell Mills '11 (Philadelphia, PA/Engineering and Science) to cut the lead to five at the half, with the Warriors holding a 39-34 edge. The Knights had 18 points in the paint compared to the Warriors' 16, while both teams were able to score 12 points off turnovers, and rightly so as both teams contributed to a combined 30 turnovers in the first 20 minutes of play.

The first 10 minutes of the second half were dominated by the Warriors as they used a 21-11 run to eventually open up a 19 point lead at the 11:32 mark. After that point in the half, the Knights started to chip away at the lead and after Eric O'Hora '14 (Scranton, PA/Holy Cross) drew an offensive foul at the 8:32 mark the 19 point lead was cut to single digits when the first year sunk both ends of the one-and-one. The Warriors again, climbed out to a double digit lead, culminated with a 69-55 advantage, but once again the Knights battled back cutting the lead back to six at the 4:11 mark on a monstrous Aaron Benusis '14 (Bristol, CT/Bristol Eastern) dunk forcing Lycoming to take a 30-second timeout to regroup. Despite the run by the Knights, they were not able to cut the lead past five, as the Warriors held the Knights off securing the 79-70 victory.

The Knights were led by three players in double figures including a team high 18 by Damien Palantino 'GR (Philadelphia, PA/Father Judge), who shot 7-10 from the free throw line Benusis added 12 points and fueled the Knights second half run on the defensive end with five second half blocks, giving him six for the game. McCarthy emerged off the bench to put up 14 points. O'Hora added 8 points, 4 assists and 2 boards. The Warriors were led by Will Kelly's game high 24 points as well as Mike Bradley's 16 points.

The Knights will travel to Reading this Wednesday to take on Albright College in a Commonwealth Conference game with tip off slated for 8 PM.

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