BOX SCORE

Elizabethtown, Pa. (Dec. 2, 2009) - A little better than two weeks ago no one knew what to expect from Alvernia University Men's Basketball.

Monday night the Crusaders (7-0, 1-0) left Thompson Gymnasium on the campus of Elizabethtown College (4-3, 0-1) with their seventh straight win, an 88-80 decision over the preseason favorite in the Commonwealth Conference, and a little better idea of who they are.

The identity of the team has emerged in senior center Nick Rivera (Reading, Pa./Holy Name) who went 39 minutes and posted game-highs with 24 points and 13 rebounds.  With Rivera patrolling the post, seasoned guards Seth Cornell (Millersville, Pa./Penn Manor)--23 points--and Tad Gillis (Upper Darby, Pa./Upper Darby)--13 points, eight assists--continued to wreck havoc on the perimeter.  Wednesday night kid brother Matt Schatzmann (Paradise, Pa./Pequea Valley) grew up with a career-high 21 points and five assists.

"First off you gotta give credit to Nick," said Alvernia head coach Mike Miller through a smile in the Thompson halls.  "He's worked his tail off.  I've never seen a guy get stronger and improve his skills the way he has."

A year ago Alvernia opened the season with a 68-63 loss at Etown.  Rivera scored two points and grabbed two boards in five minutes.  He blew those numbers away on Wednesday putting up 12 points, seven boards, and five blocked shots by halftime.

Cornell was equally as effective in the opening frame scoring 17 points on 5-of-7 shooting that included 4-of-6 from beyond the arc, and the Crusaders needed every bit of it.  Etown held the largest lead of the half at five points, 16-11, and Blue Jay senior Chris Jones's 3 on the final possession of half forged the 10th tie of the night at 40-40 through the first 20.

"Some guards just know how to win," said Miller with a shrug speaking of Cornell and Gillis, who went 3-for-3 from the arc in the second half.  "Those two are flat out competitors.  I want to take them out, but if I do they're going to get mad."

Gillis rested for two minutes on Wednesday, his fifth straight game with 37 minutes or more.  Cornell hasn't seen the bench outside a timeout in over a week.

Miller played two subs, senior Charlie Hughes (Kenhorst, Pa./Governor Mifflin) and sophomore Ryan Ludwig (Sunbury, Pa./Shikellamy), a combined total of 23 minutes.  Neither attempted a shot from the floor, but they did hit 5-of-6 free throws between them.

Schatzmann went 38 minutes, the most for him since getting 27 against Immaculata.

"I had a feeling it would be a bit of a coming out party for him tonight," said Miller of Schatzmann, whose older brother Mike scored better than 900 career points in three years as a Jay.

The younger Schatzmann was consistent for the Crusaders on Wednesday.  After posting seven points and three assists through the first half, he and Gillis went back-to-back on 3s twice in the first 10 minutes of the second half as the Crusaders ran off a 24-6 run turning a three point deficit into a 15-point lead with eight minutes to play.  For the night the Crusaders were 28-of-43 from the floor, a blistering 65 percent.

Schatzmann followed the second set of 3s with a layup, Gillis added his third 3 of the half, and Rivera punctuated the run with an and-one layup.

Etown went to work on the gap with another Jones 3 and junior Keith Fogel scored six of his team-high 21 during a lighting quick 8-0 run that pulled the hosts within 3 points, 75-72 with 3:21 to play.

"We didn't want to change what we were doing," said Miller when asked what he said during a timeout with the momentum having clearly jumped to the Etown bench.  "Obviously we wanted to settle things down, but just continue to do what we do."

What they did was get the ball back to Rivera.  After a free throw from Cornell the Crusaders dumped the ball to Rivera on successive possessions and he converted both for a six point lead with a minute to go.  Gillis scored a layup in the paint and the Crusaders hit six free throws in the last 40 seconds to hold off the Jays final surge.

Mike Church added 19 points for Etown and Joe Flanagan scored 10.

The Crusaders tied the wins to start a season mark held by the face of Alvernia Basketball, the 1996-97 team that advanced to the Final Four.  They go for eight Saturday in a match-up of unbeatens when Albright College comes to the Physical Education Center for the first conference doubleheader in the history of the series.

Alvernia 88, Elizabethtown 80