Box Score

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Junior guard Evan Harlor (Danville, Pa./Danville) scored a team and season-high 20 points on 5-of-9 three-point shooting but Moravian College defeated Lebanon Valley 78-72 Saturday afternoon in a Commonwealth Conference match-up.

Sophomore forward Brandon Zaleski posted a game-high 21 points for Moravian (12-6, 6-2 CC), which with the win remains tied for first place in the Commonwealth standings.

LVC (8-11, 3-5) lost its second game to Moravian this season and fell for the third time in a row against the Greyhounds.

Moravian shot just 37.9% from the field while LVC hit 53.1% (26-of-49) of its shots in the team’s second-best shooting game of the season. However, Lebanon Valley committed 23 turnovers while the Greyhounds turned the ball over just 11 times. Moravian also scored 25 points at the foul line while LVC managed just eight points on nine trips to the charity stripe.

Senior center Darren Pugh (Shippensburg, Pa./Shippensburg) scored 16 points on 8-of-10 shooting and gathered a game-high 12 rebounds for his ninth double-double of the season. He is now just two points shy of becoming the 26th 1,000-point scorer in LVC men’s basketball history.

Sophomore guard J.D. Byers (Westminster, Md./Westminster) added 16 points, a game-high seven assists and a career-high seven rebounds while junior guard Jay Leader (Halifax, Pa./Halifax) recorded 10 points.

Moravian tied its largest lead of the game (70-60) with 2:14 left after a Zaleski lay-up. But as he has done numerous times this season, Byers got hot down the stretch and nearly brought LVC from behind single-handedly.

Byers scored 10 of his team’s final 12 points, and his four-point play with 21 seconds left pulled the Dutchmen to within three (75-72) and capped a 12-5 Valley run. But Moravian iced the game at the foul line, as Zaleski hit 1-of-2 with 19 seconds left and Kevin Burke converted a pair with 10 seconds to go.

LVC led throughout most of the first half and enjoyed its largest lead of the game (31-24) following a three-pointer from Harlor with 4:41 remaining in the stanza. But the Greyhounds outscored the Dutchmen 12-5 over the rest of the half and a pair of Willie Reynolds free throws tied the game (36-36) at the intermission.

After two ties and four lead changes over the opening 7:48 of the second half, another Harlor trey gave LVC a five-point edge (52-47) with 10:12 left. But a 9-2 Moravian run gave the Greyhounds the lead for good.

LVC continues its Commonwealth Conference schedule when it visits Susquehanna University at 8 p.m. on Wednesday.

[Photo - Junior guard Evan Harlor, who scored a team and season-high 20 points against Moravian.]

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