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Lycoming men hold off Elizabethtown to earn 86-81 win at Lamade Gym

By Jon Gerardi 5 min read

Whenever Elizabethtown hit a shot to cut down the deficit to five or six points late in the second half, Lycoming responded immediately.

A J.J. Beagle basket inside. A Steven Hamilton layup in the paint. A Brendon Blackson dagger from beyond the arc.

The Warriors refused to let the Blue Jays shift any momentum and go on a run and quickly extinguished any rally attempts and it gave Lycoming a nice milestone. The victory gave Lycoming its first conference win in the Landmark thanks to beating Elizabethtown, 86-81, at Lamade Gym.

“It feels amazing man. We struggled the first game (against Juniata) but this game we bounced back. We played with each other,,” Hamilton said. “In practice we were detail focused, we wanted to make sure we came out strong and get this first win for us and make history.”

In the second half, Elizabethtown wouldn’t go away. The Warriors led by as many as 13 points twice, but the Blue Jays kept trying to claw their way back.

Slowly but surely the Blue Jays cut the deficit down to five points late in the game, but that’s when the Warriors stepped up and prevented a huge momentum shift.

“It was huge. It’s a player’s game. It’s always going to be a player’s game and our job is to make sure they get put in the right spots,” Lycoming coach Mark Linebaugh said. “I thought we were able to do that. At end of the day the guys made the right plays when they needed to and hit some big shots.”

“We just have to be ourselves. Limit the turnovers, play our game, not get sped up and just play Warrior basketball,” Hamilton said.

And that’s what the Warriors did. Lycoming never played with a sense of panic or worry. Rather, they kept at it and played their style of basketball.

“(Coach Linebaugh) just said stay composed, our time’s going to come, our run’s going to come,” Hamilton said. “That’s just how they play. Every Landmark team, they’re going to beat us up every time but we’re making sure we bring same fight to beat them up.”

Hamilton, Blackson and Isaiah Valentine were huge for Lycoming in the win. The trio combined for 52 points as Hamilton scored a team-high 19, Blackson added 18 and Valentine scored 15.

“They’re the best back court in the Landmark. We’ve been playing with each other for two years, I’ve been playing with Brendon since I was a freshman,” Hamilton said. “The chemistry is there and we just click together. When the ball’s in our hands, we just know we’re going to score.”

That was evident throughout Saturday’s game.

In addition to that trio scoring 52 combined points, the Warriors were outstanding from beyond the arc. Lycoming hit 14 3-pointers, nine of which came in the first half as Lycoming built a 12-point halftime lead.

Hamilton hit four 3-pointers, Blackson nailed three, Ivan Komitski hit two and Misaias Herrera, Williamsport graduate J.J. Beagle and Mavin James each had one.

“We shoot a lot in practice, that’s all we do. That’s our main offense,” Hamilton said. “We got a lot of killers on the floor, everybody can score. The biggest thing is that we can shoot and today we definitely showed that.”

“I think we’re a better shooting team than what our numbers say they are … I know we have good shooters and it’s just a matter of finding the right shots, shooting the right shots, getting guys in rhythm which I thought we did today,” Linebaugh added.

Elizabethtown had a lot of dangerous players and were led by Austin Finarelli’s 21 points. Niko Georgelis and MJ Branker both came off the bench to score 12 and 11 points, respectively. The Blue Jays almost got a double-double out of Dylan Rowe as well as he had nine points and a team-high10 rebounds.

“Oh yeah, every Landmark team, they fight the whole 40 minutes. That’s one thing we’re learning and we’re working on with this young group,” Hamilton said. “We came, we were expecting for what they were bringing and we were ready to go.”

ELIZABETHTOWN (2-5, 0-2 LANDMARK)

Dylan Rowe 4-9 1-1 9; EJ Finney 3-10 3-4 9; Austin Finarelli 7-18 4-4 21; Alon Gorham 3-10 2-2 9; Ben Stanton 0-1 2-2 2; Reese Ziegler 1-3 0-0 2; MJ Branker 4-7 3-5 11; Tyreke Herbert 1-3 0-0 2; Niko Georgelis 3-6 5-6 12; Chauncey Presley 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 27-73 20-24 81.

LYCOMING (4-3, 1-1 LANDMARK)

Mavin James 3-6 0-2 7; J.J. beagle 3-7 0-0 7; Steven Hamilton 6-13 3-6 19; Brendon Blackson 6-12 3-4 18; Isaiah Valentine 5-11 4-5 15; Ivan Komitski 2-4 0-0 6; Haydn Pardoe 4-10 0-1 9; J.T. Kirbie 1-2 0-0 2; Misaias Herrera 1-1 0-0 3. Totals 31-66 10-18 86.

Halftime: Lycoming 45-33. 3-point goals: Elizabethtown 7-18 (Finarelli 3-7, Ziegler 2-5, Georgelis 1-2, Gorham 1-4), Lycoming 14-30 (Hamilton 4-8, Blackson 3-5, Komitski 2-4, Pardoe 1-4, Valentine 1-5, Beagle 1-1, James 1-1, Herrera 1-1,Kirbie 0-1). Fouled out: Elizabethtown-Stanton; Lycoming-none. Rebounds: Elizabethtown 42 (Rowe 10), Lycoming 44 (Beagle 9). Assists: Elizabethtown 11 (Gorham 3), Lycoming 12 (Hamilton 7). Technical fouls: Elizabethtown-none; Lycoming-none. Total fouls: Elizabethtown 17, Lycoming 18. A: 266.

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