Box Score

ANNVILLE, Pa. – Senior guard Evan Harlor (Danville, Pa./Danville) scored a game-high 20 points, but the Widener University Pioneers earned a 78-70 victory in Commonwealth Conference men's basketball action Wednesday evening at the LVC Gymnasium.

Widener (10-4, 4-1 CC) moved into a tie with Lebanon Valley (10-6, 4-1 CC) for first place in the Commonwealth Conference with the win. The Flying Dutchmen lost their second straight game and suffered their first conference loss of the season. LVC also had its five-game home winning streak snapped.

Freshman forward Taurean Temple (New Castle, Del./Hodgson Vo-Tech) led the Pioneers with 16 points and a game-high nine rebounds while freshman forward Malcolm Thomas (Baltimore, Md./Pikesville) added 15 points off the bench. Senior guard Bilal McAfee (Philadelphia, Pa./Abraham Lincoln) contributed 10 points, five assists and six steals.

Junior forward Steve Buzinski (West Pittston, Pa./Wyoming) posted a career-high 17 points to go with eight rebounds for LVC before fouling out with 1:27 left in the game. Sophomore forward Dan Hogan (Scranton, Pa./West Scranton) added 12 points while sophomore forward Dave Kasyan (Toms River, N.J./Toms River) had 11 points and seven rebounds.

The Pioneers held LVC guard J.D. Byers (Westminster, Md./Westminster), the leading scorer in the Commonwealth Conference coming into the game, to a season-low five points.

Widener led 36-30 at halftime and went ahead by as much as 17 (63-46) with less than eight minutes to go. The Pioneers led by 10 (72-62) with 50 seconds left, but a Kasyan dunk sandwiched around a pair of Harlor three-pointers made it a six-point game with 13 seconds to go. However, Widener's Casey Stitzel (Quakertown, Pa./Lansdale Catholic) iced the game when he hit a pair of foul shots with 11 seconds remaining.

Lebanon Valley had the upper hand early in the game, and led by as much as nine (20-11) following a pair of free throws from senior forward Jeff Kline (Reading, Pa./Exeter Township) with 11:08 left in the opening half. But Widener used a 6-0 run to cut the gap to three, and a Thomas jumper with 2:55 left in the half put the Pioneers ahead to stay. Widener outscored the Dutchmen 11-4 over the final 3:56 of the period.

In the second half, the Dutchmen cut the deficit to one (38-37) on a three-pointer by Harlor with 18:25 on the clock, but the Pioneers responded with a quick 12-2 run and assumed an 11-point lead (50-39) with 15:09 left.

Lebanon Valley returns to Commonwealth Conference action on Saturday when it visits Elizabethtown College at 4 p.m. in the second game of a men's and women's doubleheader.

[Photo - Junior forward Steve Buzinski, who recorded a career-high 17 points to go with eight rebounds against Widener on Wednesday]

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