BOX SCORE

Williamsport, Pa. (Feb. 13, 2010) - The Alvernia University (14-8, 6-6) playoff push took a hit Saturday afternoon with an 84-77 loss to Lycoming College (18-5, 8-3) in a Commonwealth Conference men's basketball match up at Lamade Gymnasium.

Lycoming jumped out to leads of 8-0 and 16-4 and never trailed.  The Crusaders did tie the score on the first bucket of the second half, a 3 by Seth Cornell (Millersville, Pa./Penn Manor), but a recent trend of starting halves poorly continued with the Warriors running off a 16-6 run to build a 10-point cushion with 12:42 to play.

"We didn't take care of the ball," said Alvernia head coach Mike Miller in a phone interview on the long bus ride home, "and 84 points is too many."

Lycoming scored 27 points off 20 Alvernia turnovers and shot 47 percent from the floor, including a 57-percent clip in the second half.

Alvernia went to work on the 10-point, second-half deficit cutting it down to one, 65-64 with 6:37 to go, the last five points coming on a Stefan Thompson (Philadelphia, Pa./G.A.M.P.) 3 and a Nick Rivera (Reading, Pa./Holy Name) layup.  Thompson finished with a career-high 24 points on the strength of six 3s.  Rivera posted 19 points on 9-of-11 shooting.

The Warriors went to sophomore center Mike Bradley (Philadelphia, Pa./St. Joseph's Prep) on each of the next two possessions and Bradley scored twice to push the lead to five before Eric Anthony (Wheeling, W.V./Wheeling Central Catholic) nailed a 3 to push it to eight.

"They went inside to Bradley anytime they needed a bucket," Miller said, "and he pretty much got anything he wanted."

That lead went back to 10 on the next possession, and Alvernia cut it to three with 17 seconds left, but Lycoming closed the game with four straight free throws.

The Crusaders are in a precarious spot with a week left in the regular season since they don't hold a tiebreaker against any of the four teams above them.  They will need to outright pass either Messiah (7-4) or Elizabethtown (6-4) to qualify for the playoffs.

The Alvernia season continues at Albright next Tuesday and home against Lebanon Valley next Saturday.

Lycoming 84, Alvernia 77