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Lyco men tie regular-season win mark

With over a dozen family members up from his hometown of Philadelphia, senior guard David Johnson wanted to put on a show. With every made shot, his family members and the other 800 plus fans in attendance were put into a frenzy. And when he walked off the court in his final regular season game, he was met with a high-five from his coach and a standing ovation from the fans.

Johnson scored a career-high 31 points with five rebounds and three assists as Lycoming ended its regular season with a 97-81 win over Steven­son Saturday at Lamade Gym.

Lycoming (21-4, 13-3 MAC Com­monwealth) tied the school-record set by the 1995-96, 2003-04 and the 2009-10 teams for regular-season wins. It also enters the conference playoffs as the No. 1 seed and awaits the winner of Alvernia-Lebanon Valley, who meet Monday in a pigtail game.

“My emotions got the best of me today,” Johnson said. “My family came and saw me, they drove three hours up. Seeing that was a special day. I just went out there and played, everything was clicking for me.”

Johnson’s 31 points are the most scored by a player since Anthony Martin scored 35 in a 97-95 win over Hood four years ago. Johnson, from Com­mun­ications Tech High School, hit his first nine shots and his first five 3-pointers as he finished the game hitting 12 of 16 shots from the field and 6 of 10 from deep.

Overall, Lycoming hit a season-high 11 of 27 3-pointers. Lycoming is not known as a perimeter shooting team but the Warriors made over 52 percent of its shots yesterday and hit 46 percent of its jumpers outside the paint while hitting 9 of 16 in the first half.

“We’re not even known for being a shooting team,” Johnson said. “Teams scout me and T.J. (Duckett) all the time for shooting 3’s. Today everything was falling for us.”

“When we can balance out our transition and our attacking with jump shots, it certainly makes us tough to beat,” Rancourt added.

The offense seemed to hit a different gear as jumpers were falling and the ball was being shared as the Warriors had 25 assists, their second most this season. Two other players scored in double-figures for Lycoming as Chris Wallace had 19 points and nine rebounds, while hitting 9 of 14 shots and Alex Newbold hit all five of his shots to score 11 points, grab five rebounds and dish out five assists. Four players had at least three assists and three had at least five as Nyk King also had five assists and Willie Kee (six points, four rebounds) led his team with seven.

“I think they were unselfish, there were some spots where guys made plays because they’re talented individuals. But I think they played well as a team, especially in the second half.”

Perhaps the most impressive stat was Lycoming’s 43-32 advantage on the rebounds. Stevenson started four players over 6-foot-6 and played two more that were 6-4 and 6-9. Lycoming’s tallest player with significant minutes is Calvin Chandler and he stands at 6-6. Lycoming also outscored Stevenson in the paint, 48-30.

“Numbers, you just have to do it in numbers,” Rancourt said. “They have the braun and the size, there’s no question about it. We tried to overwhelm them the best we could with numbers.”

Lycoming enters the MAC Commonwealth playoffs as the No. 1 seed for the second time in three years. But in 2015 when Lycoming finished with the top seed, it fell to Alvernia, 96-74, in the semifinals. Last year when it won the conference title, Lycoming entered as the No. 5 seed and lost five of six going into the playoffs. This season the Warriors enter on a five-game win streak.

“We’re well aware that the No. 1 seeds have not fared well in this conference,” Rancourt said. “We’re cognizant of that and we really need to make sure we’re preparing everyday up until Wednesday.”

STEVENSON (4-21, 2-14 MACC)

Michael Byrd 6-16 8-8 22; Cameron Hayes 7-16 4-5 19; Ben Wiebusch 5-9 0-0 13; Walt English 4-6 0-0 8; Cliff Cornish 3-4 2-4 8; Kyle Wooldridge 2-7 0-0 5; Mark Terrell 1-3 2-2 4; Elijah Earley 0-1 2-4 2; Korey Hayman Jr. 0-0 0-0 0; Taj Fleming 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 28-62 18-23 81.

LYCOMING (21-4, 13-3 MACC)

David Johnson 12-16 1-1 31; Chris Wallace 9-14 1-2 19; Alex Newbold 5-5 1-1 11; Darius James 4-5 0-1 8; Willie Kee 2-5 1-2 6; T.J. Duckett 2-7 0-0 6; Calvin Chandler 2-7 0-0 5; Trent Bishop 2-3 0-1 4; Jordan Howze 1-1 0-2 3; Ronald Jefferson 0-1 2-2 2; Nick Meek 1-1 0-0 2; Serge Cole 0-1 0-0 0; Hiro Yamaki 0-1 0-0 0; Damani Myers 0-0 0-0 0; Nyk King 0-9 0-0 0. Totals 40-76 6-12 97.

Halftime: Lycoming, 48-44. 3-point goals–Stevenson 7-21 (Wiebusch 3-5; Byrd 2-6; Hayes 1-4; Wooldridge 1-4; Terrell 0-2), Lycoming 11-27 (Johnson 6-10; Duckett 2-7; Howze 1-1; Kee 1-2; Chandler 1-4; Jefferson 0-1; King 0-2). Fouled out–None. Rebounds–Stevenson 32 (Cornish 10), Lycoming 43 (Wallace 9). Assists–Stevenson 17 (Byrd 8), Lycoming 25 (Kee 7). Total fouls–Stevenson 12, Lycoming 18. Technical fouls-None. A-867

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