Box Score
WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. - Lebanon Valley did its part. Thankfully for the Dutchmen, so did Albright.
On the final day of the regular season, the Flying Dutchmen won a thriller over conference regular-season champion Lycoming, 72-68, and Albright beat Messiah, 82-70, to let LVC sneak in the back door and earn the fourth seed in the Commonwealth Conference playoffs. Lebanon Valley needed a Messiah loss to have any chance of making the playoffs.
The Dutchmen will turn around and come back to Lycoming Wednesday night for a semifinal at 7 p.m. Albright will host Widener in the other game.
A frenetic final few minutes ended with Dustin Kerns making a pair of game-clinching free throws with four seconds left to secure the win.
Junior Dan Hodge matched his career-high with 26 points, and James Shinn came off the bench to score 10 points and grab eight rebounds, as well as a key block late in the game to help preserve the lead.
The Warriors ran out to a 19-11 lead midway through the first half, but went ice-cold as they suffered a nearly 11-minute scoring drought to end the half. A pair of Kerns foul shots and two buckets by Peter Ruth made it a 19-17 game, and after a Lycoming timeout, Shinn's layup tied the game, and a Kerns foul shot put LVC up 20-19 with 4:30 to go.
Hodge's three-point play off a fastbreak layup put LVC up 25-19, and his pull-up jumper added two more with 30 seconds left in the half. Eric Anthony's foul shot finally ended Lycoming's scoring drought, but Ruth capped the remarkable swing with a jumper at the buzzer to give LVC a 29-20 lead at the break. All told, Lebanon Valley ended the half on a remarkable 18-1 run.
In the second half, Lycoming finally found a field goal with Kevin Morris' three-pointer, ending 16:09 of scoreless basketball for the Warriors. LVC kept the lead around 10 until Morris was fouled on the outside and went to the line to shoot three, making them all to cut LVC's lead to 38-31 with 13 minutes left.
Eric Humphrey's deuce made it 40-31, but Anthony answered with a trey and it was 40-34 LVC.
Kerns' bankshot added two more for the Dutchmen, but Anthony drained two consecutive treys to mke it a 42-40 game. After an LVC turnover, Greg Sye hit a layup - Lycoming's first two-point bucket in 21:06 of game time - and drew the foul, converted the three-point play, and put the Warriors up 43-42 with 10 minutes to go.
The Dutchmen and Warriors then traded baskets until Jemayne Nowlin canned a three to give Lyco a four-point lead at 7:34.
LVC came back with a 7-0 spurt to retake the lead, and Lycoming again pulled within a point before Hodge hit Shinn on a high-low to give LVC a 59-56 lead with three minutes left. The Dutchmen ran out of a Warrior timeout with a long-range deuce by Hodge and a baseline runner from Shinn, and Anthony responded with his own fall-away two-pointer to make it a 63-58 game.
Hodge hit a 12-footer out of another Lycoming timeout, but then the junior fouled Anthony in the act of a three-pointer, and Anthony made all three foul shots.
After an LVC turnover, Grant Becker's foul on Anthony let Lycoming cut the lead to two.
Staub missed a pair of free throws, but David Wilson air-balled a three, and Kerns made a pair of foul shots to go up 67-63. However, Wilson made no mistake the second time, drilling a trey to cut LVC's lead to one with 17.8 ticks on the clock.
Kyle Enoch went to the line with a chance to make it a three-point game, but made only one shot, and Anthony drove to the hoop but was rejected by Shinn with eight seconds on the clock.
Hodge went to the line to ice the game and did so, but then he fouled Anthony, who made both of his tries with five seconds left. Kerns, however, was right on the mark as he made both of his tries to seal the win and a playoff spot for the Dutchmen.
