Men’s hoops season ends with 65-62 heartbreaker to Alvernia in ECACs

HUNTINGDON, Pa. – Juniata College men's basketball saw its 2011-12 season come to a close with a 65-62 loss to Alvernia University, in Saturday's semifinals of the ECAC Division III South Region Tournament at the Kennedy Sports + Recreation Center.

Juniata closed out the season with a 19-10 record – most wins in program history.

Alvernia (19-8) advances to Sunday's ECAC South championship game, against the winner of the Catholic University versus La Roche College semifinal. Sunday's title game will tip-off at 2:00 p.m. at the Kennedy Sports + Recreation Center.

Junior guard Alex Raymond (Hollidaysburg, Pa./Altoona Area) scored a team-high 19 points on 6-of-11 shooting, including five 3-pointers.  Brian Scholly (State College, Pa./State College Area) netted 16 with six rebounds, while senior Dan Sekulski (Douglassville, Pa./Daniel Boone Area) had 10 points in his final collegiate contest.

Jeremy Hays (McMechen, W.Va./John Marshall) and Kevin Stapleton (Indiana, Pa./Indiana) each dished out five assists in the losing effort. 

The contest was the tale of two halves for the Eagles, who shot 50 percent in the first half, 16-of-13 from the floor, and held a 39-34 lead heading into the locker room at halftime. Raymond had 14 points at the break, and was 4-of-4 from beyond the arc.

The Eagles opened the second half by missing their first 14 field goal attempt, which translated to an 8-0 run for the visiting Crusaders.  Juniata did not score its first second half bucket until the 13:28 mark, when senior Austin Ankney (Somerset, Pa./Somerset) broke the scoring hex with a layup.

However Juniata then missed its next 10 field goal attempts, scoring six points off of free throws  to help keep the Eagles within striking distance of an Alvernia squad that also struggled to find its shooting touch. The Eagles ended their second field goal drought with a Nate Higgins (St. Mary's, Pa./Elk County Catholic) jumper with 3:31 showing on the second, cutting the Alvernia lead to 56-49.

Prior to Higgins' bucket, Juniata was 1-of-25 from the field over the first 16-and-a-half minutes of the second stanza.

Juniata eventually pulled to within three points of Alvernia, 62-59, on a Sekulski layup with 47 seconds remaining. However Juniata had to begin fouling to try and gain ground on Alvernia, and the Crusaders responded by hitting first a pair of foul shots and later the first of two to turn a one possession lead into a two possession one.

The Eagles again got to within three of the Crusaders on a Scholly trey with 3.8 seconds remaining, and Alvernia's Lamont Clark missed two free throws with 3.0 seconds showing – giving Juniata one final shot at a game-tying bucket.

Lucas Mellott's (Warfordsburg, Pa./Southern Fulton) desperation one-armed toss just before the buzzer grazed the bottom of the net, allowing Alvernia to escape with the win.

Stefan Thompson paced Alvernia with a game-high 22 points on 8-of-17 shooting, including five treys. Cory Boone netted 14 points and eight rebounds, along with four blocks all of which were in the second half. Chris Davis rounded out the Crusaders' double-digit scorers with 11 points.

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