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Lyco men advance to MAC finals

MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Lycoming's Nyk King (1) dunks the ball on a fast break in the second half.

Down by one at halftime, Lycoming coach Guy Rancourt decided to make one minor yet very effective adjustment. Instead of speeding up his defense, he decided to slow it down to a still flying around in your face defense yet more tame and under control.

The adjustment paid off early in the second half as the Warriors forced five turnovers in the first five minutes and started the half on a 14-2 run as Lycoming rolled the rest of the way in its 88-64 win over Lebanon Valley Wednesday night in the MAC Commonwealth semifinals at Lamade Gym.

Lycoming (22-4, 14-3 MAC Commonwealth) moves on to the conference championship on Saturday where it will defend its title against Albright back at Lamade Gym with the time to be announced today. Also with the win, the Warriors broke the program record for wins in a season. While it was the Warriors first home postseason win since February 24, 2010.

“I think our guys just got back to the right mindset. They needed to slow down actually a little bit instead of speed up,” Rancourt said. “They just needed to get back to our game plan. We got unraveled a little bit and made some poor decisions (in the first half.)”

The Warriors, which are ranked 25th in the D3hoops.com poll for the first time in history, led by nine late in the first half but Lebanon Valley closed the half on an 11-1 run. Lycoming’s defense came out with much more intensity and ferocity in the second half. But instead of being undisciplined and reaching, the Warriors stayed on their assignments and this flustered the Dutchmen. Lycoming outscored Lebanon Valley, 51-26, in the second half as the Dutchmen had 12 second-half turnovers and just seven made shots as it shot 30 percent from the field. Lycoming scored 27 points off 21 Lebanon Valley turnovers, with 16 coming in the second half.

“Lebanon Valley’s a very, very good team. They have two of the premier scorers in the league, two first-team all-conference players,” Rancourt said. “We had a lot to deal with and the guys did a really good job of staying together until they (Lebanon Valley) showed a little crack in the second half.”

Lycoming started the second half on a 20-5 run and followed that run up with a 18-6 run to extend its lead to 26. Lycoming led by double-digits for the final 15:26 of the second half. Lebanon Valley had trouble stopping a quick Warrior offense that is averaging over 91 points a game in this six game win streak. It has shot over 49 percent in the last three games.

Leading the charge was David Johnson, Chris Wallace and Alex Newbold. Johnson, off a career-high 31 points, scored 23 points with 17 in the second half. He also had a career-high five steals. Wallace added 16 points, a career-high seven steals, five rebounds and three assists. Alex Newbold, also coming up big, played tough defense on MAC Commonwealth leading scorer Sam Light and held him to just 29 percent from the field and nearly five points below his season average. Newbold was one of three Warriors in double-figures with 15 points while making all six of his shots and making many hustle plays.

“Experiene, upperclassmen just really helping,” Rancourt said. “People that have been there in the past in these playoff games. They help when things get tight.”

LEBANON VALLEY (16-11)

Andy Orr 7-11 4-5 19; Sam Light 5-17 6-7 18; Ricky Bugg 1-3 4-4 7; Collin Moore 2-8 1-2 6; Andrew Eberhart 1-2 2-2 4; Cyree Sutton-Ames 1-1 0-0 3; Caleb Barwin 1-3 0-0 3; Brett Gilbert 0-0 2-2 2; Marquis Davis 1-2 0-0 2; Morgan Keiser 0-0 0-0 0; CJ Boxley 0-0 0-0 0; Travis Conrad 0-2 0-0 0; RJ Kupsho 0-0 0-0 0; Chris Anderson 0-0 0-0 0; Will Boccanfuso 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 19-50 19-22 64.

LYCOMING (22-4)

David Johnson 10-16 1-1 23; Chris Wallace 7-13 2-4 16; Alex Newbold 7-7 1-1 15; Nyk King 3-6 2-2 8; Ronald Jefferson 2-3 2-2 6; Darius James 3-5 0-2 6; Willie Kee 2-5 0-1 4; Hiro Yamaki 1-2 0-0 3; T.J. Duckett 1-6 0-0 3; Calvin Chandler 0-2 2-2 2; Damani Myers 0-0 1-2 1; Trent Bishop 0-2 1-2 1; Nick Meek 0-0 0-0 0; Serge Cole 0-0 0-0 0; Jordan Howze 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 36-68 12-19 88.

Halftime: Lebanon Valley, 38-37. 3-point goals: Lebanon Valley 7-23 (Light 2-8; Sutton-Ames 1-1; Orr 1-2; Moore 1-4; Bugg 1-2; Barwin 1-3; Conrad 0-2; Davis 0-1), Lycoming 4-12 (Johnson 2-3; Duckett 1-6; Yamaki 1-1; King 0-1; Chandler 0-1). Fouled out: Lebanon Valley-none, Lycoming-none. Rebounds: Lebanon Valley 35 (Orr 12), Lycoming 37 (King 6). Assists: Lebanon Valley 8 (Conrad 2), Lycoming 17 (King 5). Total fouls: Lebanon Valley 16, Lycoming 21. Technical fouls: Lebanon Valley-none, Lycoming-none. A: 685.

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