BOX SCORE Reading, Pa. (Feb. 12, 2014) – It took Alvernia University head coach
Mike Miller a minute to spot the glaring number in the box score Wednesday evening.
"
Chris Davis 17 assists. Is that a record?" asked Miller; his voice clearly peeked with interest.
A game after becoming Alvernia's career assist leader, Davis (Norristown, Pa./Norristown) broke the single-game record with 17 assists and led the Crusaders (16-6, 11-4) to a 78-63 win over Arcadia University (7-15, 2-13) and into a tie for first place in the Commonwealth Conference.
Davis was at it from the start firing a laser down the lane on the opening possession to set up junior
Harrison Deyo (Phoenixville, Pa./Phoenixville) for a one-handed slam less than 15 seconds after the tip.
He set up
Kahlil Bennett (Old Bridge, N.J./Old Bridge) for the second two of three straight 3s as the Crusaders opened up an 11-0 lead 3-plus minutes into the game.
"That's just knowing your roles," said Miller. "Obviously get it to the guys where they can do something with it. If they're going to leave [Bennett] free like that he's going to knock them down."
Alvernia's first half lead was as high as 17 points, but the second half lead was as low as six and didn't hit 15 until the final seconds.
"We were up 11-0 and we couldn't pull away," said Miller. "They play hard no matter what. You got to beat them. They're not going to beat themselves."
Arcadia pulled within six points early in the second half on a 3 from Torrell Candelaria then again after two free throws from Khalil Curtis.
Alvernia responded with a free throw from
Lamont Clark (Parkesburg, Pa./Octorara) and a 3 from Bennett to push the lead back to 10 then got it to 12 points, 51-39 with 15:04 to go, on free throws from
Brian Parker (Chichester, Pa./Chichester).
The lead was under 10 points for only two possessions the rest of the way.
Deyo finished with a career-high 25 points and pulled down 10 boards. Parker also threw in a double-double with 20 and 11—and threw in two alley-oop dunks from Davis in the second half. He also pulled within 22 points of 1,000 for his career.
"Just look at [Parker and Deyo]," said Miller "they had trouble matching up with us. They were 21-for-28. We ran our offense and we got them were they need to be."
Those were the numbers that Miller first started to talk about as the keys to victory before he looked up from the stat sheet after seeing the Davis assist number.
Davis has now bumped two fairly storied guards from the Alvernia record book in successive games. He passed Chris Alba's ('02) career assist mark over the weekend and went five better than Hall of Famer Daimen Hunter's ('98) single game high on Wednesday.
Davis also pulled within 27 assists of Alba's single season record of 170.
"He runs our offense and we're pretty well oiled offensively right now," said Miller.
Bennett was the third Crusader to reach 20 points hitting 5-of-9 3s and finishing with 21. Joe Brown led the Knights with 24 points hitting 6-of-6 from beyond the arc.
The Crusaders improved to 10-0 at home this season and 8-0 in conference games. Wednesday's win coupled with a Messiah (11-4) loss to Stevenson moves Alvernia into a tie for first with three games to go. Stevenson is a game back in third place, Hood is two games back following a loss at Albright which currently holds the fifth and final playoff spot a game behind Hood.
Alvernia hits the road Saturday at Widener and Tuesday at Hood before wrapping up the regular season hosting Messiah next Saturday.
Alvernia 78, Arcadia 63
