Lebanon Valley 66, Widener 65
 
LVC Starters
Baker, Tucker, L. Garcia, Jones, Deihm
 
Widener Starters
Lewis, Woodard, Holden, Matlack, Peters
 
How It Happened
ANNVILLE, Pa. – Jaylen Reichner knocked down three free throws in the final seconds of regulation to give Lebanon Valley's Men's Basketball team a thrilling 66-65 come-from-behind victory over Widener on Thursday evening in MAC Commonwealth action. The Flying Dutchmen stayed perfect and improved to 4-0, 3-0 MACC, while the Pride slipped to 3-2, 3-2 MACC.
 
Down by four at 65-61 with 17 seconds to go in the second half, Luis Garcia hit a pull up jumper to bring LVC to within two at 65-63. After a full Dutchmen timeout, the Dutchmen forced a Widener turnover when a tie up occurred between Pat Holden and L. Garcia, and it went in the Dutchmen's favor with 11 ticks left. Coming out of a timeout, LVC drew up a play and Reichner eventually took a 3-pointer, but was fouled in the process, resulting in three free throws for the junior with just 1.8 seconds remaining.
 
Reichner hit the first one, and then sank the second to even the game at 65-65. After the Pride called a timeout in an attempt to ice Reichner, he stepped up and drilled the final shot from the charity stripe to give LVC the narrow 66-65 lead. Coming out of another timeout, Widener's Jared Peters took a near-half court shot, but it rattled off the rim and the Dutchmen escaped with a wild 66-65 victory.


 
In a game that saw the lead change 13 times, things remained close early on as Bryce Diehl's jumper with 11:33 to go in the first brought LVC to within two at 9-7. From there, Widener extended the lead eventually to six after Peters knocked down a trey, but the Dutchmen answered with a layup from Diehl, followed by L. Garcia's triple that cut the visitor's advantage to one at 14-13 with 8:43 left.
 
Back-and-forth action continued, but LVC later took its first lead of the contest after Collin Jones' layup made it 21-20 in favor of the home team with 4:43 left in the opening half. From there until the end of the half, neither team was able to generate a significant run, but Pat Holden's jumper at the buzzer gave the Pride a narrow 28-25 lead heading into second-half play.
 
In the early going of the second, Widener continued to hold a slight advantage, but with 17:05 left, Jones hit a layup to tie things up at 32-32. The Pride responded with an 18-9 run that spanned nearly seven minutes and went up by nine at 50-41 after Bo Furey-Bastian made a layup with 9:24 remaining. Widener held a steady advantage and were even ahead by nine with 3:31 to go, but the Dutchmen clawed their way back and scored the game's final six points in just 13 seconds for the thrilling win.
 
Inside the Numbers
 - Collin Jones, the conference's leading scorer, led all players with 21 points this evening to go along with nine rebounds.
 - Jeremy Deihm ended with 12 points on 6-of-10 shooting.
 - Luis Garcia netted nine points and had five rebounds, five assists, and three steals.
 - Justin Baker finished with nine points, seven boards, and a pair of steals.
 - Reichner provided six points off the bench, with three of those coming in the final 1.8 of the game.
 - Jared Peters paced Widener's offense with 18 points.
 - Steven Matlack (11) and Kolbey Woodard (10) were also in double figures in points.
 - The Pride outshot LVC 40.0 % to 38.7% from the floor.
 - The Dutchmen held the edge in points in the paint at 40-34.
 
Who's Next?
LVC and Widener will finish off their home-and-home tomorrow at 7 p.m. when the two teams meet in Chester.
 
Stay Connected
Be sure to follow @lvcathletics on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for the most in-depth coverage of LVC athletics.