ANNVILLE, Pa. – Ryan Harder scored a career-high 32 points and hit seven three pointers to lead the Lebanon Valley Men's Basketball team to a big 87-53 victory over visiting King's College on Wednesday evening inside Sorrentino Gymnasium in Annville.
 
The Dutchmen (10-8, 4-3 MAC Freedom) scored first against the Monarchs (7-9, 2-5 MAC Freedom) as Harder hit a pull-up jumper just inside the paint. King's responded with a layup at the other end, Harder found Evin Timochenko underneath for two, and then the Monarchs evened the scored with a jumper. A couple of possessions later, Jason Penn stole the ball and then hit a three-pointer putting LVC up 7-4. The Monarchs responded with a 4-0 run to take the lead. The Dutchmen called a timeout and answered right away as Penn found Harder open for his first three of the evening. After a steal by Evan Smith, Kyle Tang hit Harder in transition for another three to give the Dutchmen a five-point cushion. King's countered with the next four points and a 7-2 run capped by a three-pointer to even the score at 15 with 12 minutes to go in the first half.
 
Smith put the Dutchmen right back in front with three pointers on back-to-back trips down the court. The run continued with a pair of layups from Timochenko and LVC led by 10 just three minutes after the game was tied. The scoring run continued for the Dutchmen as Timochenko forced his way inside for another layup. King's knocked down a pair of free throws to briefly stop the run. LVC answered with a Tang driving layup and a Harder jumper in the paint to push the lead to 31-17 with seven minutes left in the half. The Monarchs scored a pair of layups on their next two offensive possessions that were countered by three-pointers from Tyson Hofsass and Harder. The advantage was still 16 when King's knocked down a pair of threes to get back within 10 with just under two minutes on the clock. A made free throw by KC got the lead down to nine before LVC ended the half with another three from Smith off a pass by Timochenko to go up 44-32.
 
The first two minutes of the second half went scoreless until Timochenko found Penn open for a three-pointer. The Dutchmen held King's scoreless for the first 4:42 of the half and were able to push the lead to 20 on a traditional three-point play from Harder and a driving layup by Tang. King's ended their dry spell with a mid-range jumper before Harder found Timochenko inside for another layup. After a Monarchs bucket, Harder knocked down threes on two consecutive trips down the court to make it 60-36. King's answered with a three of their own at the other end. Harder gave LVC a 26-point advantage with another open three and then a driving layup.
 
The Monarchs used a 6-0 run by Chris Patton to get the deficit back down to 20 with 7:28 left. The Dutchmen countered with an 8-0 run over the next two minutes on a Harder three-pointer, a fastbreak layup by Hofsass following a steal and feed from Tyler Kerlin, and a top of the key three-pointer by Timochenko. LVC continued the three-point barrage as Hofsass and Karson Pavlik scored on back-to-back possessions to put the Dutchmen up 81-49 with a little over four minutes left. Both teams went to the bench and LVC was able to outscore the Monarchs 6-4 the rest of the way to post the largest margin of victory this season.
 
Inside the Box

• Harder made a career-high seven threes and was 12-18 from the floor for his career-high 32 points. The seven made threes in a game is two off the program record of nine. The senior also grabbed four rebounds.
• Timochenko was just shy of a double-double with 19 points and eight rebounds. The forward added also dished out five assists.
• Smith was 3-5 on three-pointers for nine points. The guard added three rebounds and two assists off the bench.
• Hofsass had a pair of threes and finished with eight points while Penn also had two three-pointers for six points.
• LVC hit 16 three pointers in the game, one off the program record of 17.
• Tang led the team with seven assists and added four point and four rebounds.
• The Dutchmen shot over 50 percent for the seventh time this year with a 51.5 shooting percentage including an outstanding 53.3 percent on 30 three-point attempts.
• LVC equaled the season-low of nine turnovers and scored 23 points off 14 Monarch turnovers.
• The Dutchmen held a 38-32 rebounding advantage and scored 17 points off 11 offensive rebounds.
• The win allows LVC to stay in a tie for second in the conference standings after the first rotation. The Dutchmen are tied with DeSales at 4-3 while Misericordia, Arcadia, and Delaware Valley are a game back at 3-4.

Up Next
The Dutchmen will head to Hoboken, N.J. on Saturday to take on first place Stevens Institute of Technology. The Ducks are undefeated at 7-0 in the conference. Tip-off is scheduled for 1 p.m. at Canavan Arena.

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